


A Team, A Safe Haven

by whiteraven1606



Series: Offers of Home [6]
Category: Incredible Hulk (2008), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012), The Pretender
Genre: Angst, Clones, Crossover, Friendship, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Kidnapping, Past Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Spoilers, sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-20
Updated: 2012-06-18
Packaged: 2017-11-05 16:31:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 44,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/408569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team finds out there's more to Clint Barton than any of them guessed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Teamwork

**Author's Note:**

> My headcannon is a scary, expansive place. This one is the whole reason I wrote the rest of this series. :D
> 
> If you've never seen _The Pretender_ you can still read this. I don't mention any Pretender characters by name except Jarod. And you can find out what's going on along with the rest of the team. ;) Edit: So, I've had one person tell me they got lost in chapter 2. Please, just keep reading. I don't explain pretenders all at once because I wanted those that hadn't seen the TV show to feel like one of the Avengers finding it out bit by bit. If you are a must-know-it-all-this-instant type person, just google the tv show and read the wiki.
> 
> All the WWII facts are things my Grandfather and Grand-Uncles used to tell stories on all the while I was growing up. Later when they talk modern weapons I use Army designations because I was Army. I know that the Marines and the Army don't always call something the same thing, but at least with claymores we did.

****

It didn’t take long for Bruce to get used to Clint in the ceiling somewhere and Tony strolling through any time he felt like it, but Captain Rogers showing up and planting himself in the corner was something fairly new and different. Bruce wrote up half an equation on the screen that’d be in front of Tony when he came by later. 

“You okay, Cap?”

Steve glanced up from whatever picture he was drawing. “Hhm? Oh, yeah.” He frowned and thumbed his drawing. “I’m just having trouble with this. I needed the quiet to work on it.”

“Ah. Sorry.” Bruce put another partial equation on a different screen, the one Tony would mess with when he got fidgety and moved around the lab.

“No, no. It is alright.” Steve sighed and tossed down his sketchbook. “I’m just mad I’m losing details of the people I knew.”

“If you draw Tony’s father, please make certain Tony won’t see it.” Bruce closed out his files. “Isn’t it time for lunch, Cap?”

“Yes, it is.” Steve stood up. “I have a different book for anything I don’t want seen.”

“That’s a good idea.” Futile, but a good idea. Bruce let Steve go ahead of him. “What details are you missing?”

Steve pushed the button for the elevator. “Different little things. I can’t remember how Morita’s chin looked. Or Dum Dum without his bowler hat.”

Bruce nodded. “Our minds do odd things with memory.”

“It _feels_ like a few months ago to me, you know?” Steve crossed his arms as the elevator doors slid open. “I keep looking at the Military Channel and wondering when we got such reliable weapons.”

“Yours weren’t reliable?”

Steve shrugged. “We did pretty well, but some of the standard issue stuff was for crap. The BAR was hard to deal with. Heavy and needed two or three guys to carry haul it around. The SAW they have now is so much lighter and still able to do the job.”

“Two or three guys?”

“Two for the paratroopers. The gun was under the guy on a line so it wouldn’t tangle him worse. At least that was the idea. And another guy for the mount and ammo. Infantry usually managed it with three guys. It was good once you got it setup, but getting it there...” Steve shook his head.

“Ah.” Bruce adjusted his glasses. “I’d think the paratroopers would have had problems given how many of them didn’t make it through the jumps.” 

The elevator stopped and the doors opened. 

Steve stepped out and turned partway back towards Bruce as they went into the kitchen. “The Ronsons were the worse though.”

“The what?”

Tony moved past them along the counter. “M4 Sherman Tank from World War II. It weighed 30.3 metric tons, had 76 mm armor at the thickest, usually with a 75 mm main armament. They caught fire nearly every time they got hit because their armor was too thin and the ammo was right in the wrong place.”

Steve nodded and got down the cup Tony was trying to reach. “Falsworth called them Ronsons after the cigarette lighter.” Steve sat the cup down near Tony’s elbow.

Bruce glanced at Tony who made a face.

“Lights the first time, every time.” Tony wrinkled his nose, snatched up the cup, and moved to the coffeemaker.

Natasha settled at the table. “The Germans called them Tommycookers.”

Steve grimaced and sat down next to her. “I hadn’t heard that. We were usually fighting HYDRA which wasn’t the standard luckily.”

Clint slipped in and settled on the other side of Natasha. “What’s for lunch?”

****

Bruce frowned at the finished equation on the screen as Tony strolled past him.

“What are you working on?” Tony tapped the second screen Bruce had set up and absentmindedly finished that equation before looking up and grinning at Bruce. “You look worried.”

Bruce glanced up at Tony and then back at the equation. “Me? Never.” He cocked his head and pointed at the screen. “What do you make of this?”

Tony slid over and looked where Bruce was pointing. “Nice solution.”

“You didn’t do it.” Bruce took his glasses off and rubbed the lenses on his shirt. “And I didn’t. So, who else do we have that could solve it?”

“Probably Natasha.” Tony flicked the equation away and pulled on Bruce’s arm. “Come on. I need someone to tell me if the nanofabric I’m working on makes them itch.”

Bruce blinked. “Nanofabric?”

****

The third time Bruce found equations meant for Tony solved in someone else’s handwriting, Bruce resorted to asking JARVIS about it. Which felt a bit like cheating, but Bruce hadn’t been successful at catching the person on his own. Turned out JARVIS wasn’t all that helpful.

“I am only allowed to report on the presence of the Hulk or intruders in your laboratory, Dr. Banner.”

“Huh.” That meant it had to be one of them because Bruce knew of no one else expect Pepper who ever got near him or his lab. “Tell Tony I’m asking you to show me who finishes either of these equations, please, JARVIS.” He wrote more equations to finish on a screen.

“Very well, Dr. Banner.”

****

Fury called them to suppress a threat that afternoon. Bruce frowned as they read the situational briefs.

“Terrorists that insist they can de-age people. Lovely. Sounds like a comic book plot.” Bruce took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

Tony threw down his folder. “So? Can we go blow up stuff now?”

Steve frowned at Tony and started to say something, but Bruce nudged Steve under the table. 

Clint leaned forward and smiled at Steve’s affronted expression. “Please tell me there will be somebody I can shoot.”

Coulson smirked. “I’ll be sure to find you someone, Agent Barton.”

Steve got up and in all seriousness told them to assemble.

Natasha kicked Tony so he wouldn’t make a snide remark about them all being in the same room, thanks. Instead he complained about being injured before there was even any fighting. Bruce didn’t see that as much improvement, but it seemed to make Natasha happy.

****

Bruce wasn’t allowed to help because someone was worried the Hulk and de-aging agents would be a nasty combination. Which, while, Bruce understood the worry, that didn’t mean he had to like it. “Are they okay?”

Coulson looked up from the radar screen he was watching. “You have a comm, Dr. Banner.”

“I don’t want to be startled or suddenly pissed off.”

“Ah, of course.” Coulson motioned him closer. “The dot streaking around in ovals is Iron Man.” Coulson went on to explain the positions of each person and the search pattern for the bombs.

“Do you really think these people can cause de-aging?”

Coulson shrugged. “Bombs of any sort are worth the effort to find and disarm.”

“Right.” Bruce watched the feeds of his teammates’ efforts. “You don’t believe a word of it.”

“Not about the de-aging, no.” Coulson touched his comm. “Hawkeye, wait for Thor.”

“Bit busy here. I found one.” Barton’s voice sounded stressed.

Coulson frowned and peered at the screens. Then there was a deafening boom.

Bruce was up and out of the truck just a bit faster than Coulson. He could see the dust cloud in the distance and Iron Man streaking in from one side.

“Does anyone have eyes on Hawkeye?” Coulson started up the street and Bruce went with him.

There were several negatives and Iron Man saying maybe.

“Shit!” Tony sounded panicked. “Get here now, people!”

Bruce took out off at a run.

****

Tony flipped up the face plate because he hadn’t gotten a single reading that said anything other than dust and debris. It looked like de-aging compounds had a fast half-life. “Hey, there.” He moved a fallen beam and pulled the tiny arm from under Clint’s quiver. “Please be a random kid. Please be a random bystander that Hawkeye has tucked into...Damn it.”

The boy was in Clint’s uniform and his hair was lighter than Clint’s was. He looked like he was covered in some sort of goop. It was dripping everywhere. Tony asked JARVIS to give him a DNA analysis. The kid stirred. He blinked at Tony and then started scrambling backwards.

“Clint...”

The boy froze at the sound of Tony’s voice and he cocked his head.

Tony clicked his tongue. “The world just keeps getting weirder.” He held his hand out towards the mini-Clint. “Clint, do you remember me?”

A shake, then a nod of the boy’s head. He looked down at himself drowning in Barton’s uniform and getting possible contaminants everywhere. “What...” The kid’s eyes went impossibly wide and then he was clinging to Tony’s armor and trying to hide from Natasha.

“Where’s Barton, Stark?”

Tony very carefully settled his armored hand on mini-Clint’s back. “De-aged it looks like.”

****

Bruce frowned at the analysis. “This isn’t good. There’s abnormalities in the DNA. I mean, yeah, it is Barton, but I’m not sure how stable this form is.” He fidgeted as the rest of them frowned. “Sorry.”

Steve shook his head. “Not your fault, Bruce.” He looked over at the little blanket lump on the couch. “He was a really small child.”

“Is.” Tony flicked the blanket over so it covered both of Clint’s feet. “I’m calling Pepper.”

Bruce frowned at Tony’s retreating back. “And everyone thinks I have the biggest self-esteem issues.”

Natasha glanced up from Barton. “Not everyone.” She eased herself off the couch. “He crashed fast.”

“Decontamination showers can really take it out of you.” Everyone looked at him. “What? Before I was...green. I worked with radiation. It isn’t always as fun as you’d think.”

Coulson came in with a bag in his hand. “I have clothing for Barton.” He dropped the bag by the couch. “Do we know anything new?”

Bruce shrugged. “Nothing useful yet.” He made shooing motions. “Everyone go away so I can work.”

****

Bruce waited until they were all gone, the still sleeping boy gathered up with them, and only then did Bruce finally get a chance to check the equations. “Well, crap.”

They were unfinished. He huffed as he powered down everything that wasn’t busy running hypothetical scenarios. It’d be hours before the new tests were complete. Plenty of time to figure out what was wrong with Tony. He headed to Tony’s workshop.

He watched Tony sullenly flick bits of wireframe weapon parts around before finally going inside Tony’s workshop. “Why did you know the armament for a tank from WWII?”

Tony cocked his head and flicked another piece of design. “It was a weapon in a war.”

“Okay?”

“I grew up the son of a warmonger. What do you think I needed to know?”

Bruce raised his eyebrows at the flat tone. “Uh huh. Now you want to tell me the real reason?”

Tony froze. He took a slow, deep breath. “I’ve been a target my whole life. You get that, right?” Tony looked at him carefully and then back down at his countertop. “I was kidnapped for the first time when I was five. I made them cry and they gratefully gave me back.”

Bruce sat down and started breathing slower so he’d be able to keep listening.

“You’d think my security would get better or something, but I suppose it didn’t matter until I was ten and Dad wouldn’t pay the ransom. They weren’t happy about that.” Tony took a drink of his protein shake. “They wanted me to make them a weapon like my Dad had just announced.”

“That’s just stupid.”

Tony smiled thinly. “Not really. I invited it.” He waved a hand. “I wouldn’t. Dad wouldn’t. And they expressed their displeasure on my ribs.”

Bruce thought Tony didn’t even realize he was rubbing his fingers along his floating ribs.

“I learned every weapon after that. Learned them, made them better, made them _mine_ so I could make it look like I was doing whatever it was they wanted while I made them _lose_.” Tony hung his head for a moment and then straightened up. “And that’s when I got shipped to boarding school.”

Bruce bit his lip. “You know we’ll get Clint back to his proper size, right?”

Tony shoved his coffee cup off the table to crash on the floor. “He clung to me.” Tony covered the arc reactor in his chest. “I’m not...”

“Yes, you are.”

Tony frowned at him.

Bruce nudged Tony’s leg with his foot. “Yes, you are safe for him to be around. You can get near him without hurting him.” He pressed his foot against Tony’s calf a little with each word. “You are more than your father. Better. And I know you aren’t him because you are _Tony_. Don’t let a miniature version of Clint terrify you.”

Tony snorted. “I’m not terrified. Who said I was terrified...That is just hearsay of the worst sort.”

“Pepper said she’s not helping, didn’t she?”

With a quick gesture, Tony pulled up a wireframe of something complex. “She said she’d wait for the pictures and video with commentary. And there might have been some cackling on her part.” He started working and ignored Bruce like he wasn’t there.

Bruce slipped out and headed down to the other guy’s level. He settled against the door to the refuge room and concentrated on his control. “JARVIS are you down here too?”

“Yes, Dr. Banner. Do you require assistance to be directed to you?”

“No. I just...wanted to know.”

“Very well, sir. If you would like there is a room to your left that is human accessible.”

“Thanks, JARVIS.” Bruce found it. The door was sized for the other guy, which made Bruce shake his head. He found a nice looking chair and he settled in to think.

****

Natasha huffed as she disarmed the last trap in her air duct. “Do you even think he would get this far?”

Coulson took the claymore as she handed it down to him. “I think I don’t want to test the theory that he couldn’t.”

She didn’t blame him on that. It was Barton after all. “He gets hot while he’s asleep.”

“Most children do.” Coulson took the blasting caps from her and she dropped down beside him.

“How is your scar coming?” She took the claymore back and rechecked that it was properly secured.

Coulson’s face never changed, but Natasha got the impression of astonishment. “It itches.”

She nodded. “The good scars always do.” She put the claymore into the case with the rest of them and hefted it. She could see Coulson consider and discard the urge to take the case from her.

He picked up the small bag of blasting caps instead and kept pace with her. “You appear to be more at ease with Dr. Banner.”

She took a breathe. “He’s hard not to like.”

Coulson smiled a little at that. “Very true.” 

They arrived at one of the small armories Stark had installed on Natasha’s floor. There were also ones on Coulson’s, Barton’s, and Steve’s floors. She tapped in her code and they stowed the claymores and blasting caps.

****

It didn’t take Steve long to decide that it wasn’t just that Clint had been made smaller. He _was_ a child. And it was really disconcerting how much touching of, well, everything, that a child did.

Clint put down the TV remote with a look of wonder that Steve recognized from watching the video of himself finding out there were televisions in color and so _big_.

“Could I stay here forever, please?”

Steve blinked. “Uhm.”

Tony breezed in. “Sure, kid.” He handed Clint a tablet. “Give this a try.”

Clint peered at the tablet and started turning it over and over. “Is this battery powered?”

Steve watched Tony as he gave Clint a weird look. Tony glanced at him and shrugged. 

“Yeah, lithium-ion.”

“Oh.” Clint considered that for a moment before climbing up onto the couch beside Steve. “Why are you so confused?” He gave Steve a wide-eyed stare.

Steve rubbed his forehead. “I’m not confused.”

Tony snorted and turned the tablet back over. He tapped the screen and Clint was quickly lost to the joys of _Rune Raiders_. 

With a frown, Steve stood and pulled Tony with him until they were across the room from Clint. “Do you really think he should be playing a game with killing in it?”

Tony eyed him. “Remember the video games Barton likes to beat Thor at?”

Steve nodded.

“Those are kids’ games.”

“Oh.” Steve let it go. He looked at Tony’s body language. “Are you okay?”

“What?” Tony looked up and then over at Clint grinning down at his tablet. “Yeah, yeah. Fine. Aren’t I always?”

“Tony.”

Tony seemed to shake himself. “You might want to check that Natasha has cleared all the explosives from Clint’s floor.”

Clint’s head popped up. “A floor?” He slipped off the couch and backed away around to the other side of it. “I don’t want to do sims.”

“What?” Tony looked at Steve who shrugged. Tony turned back to Clint peering at them over the back of the couch. “What the hell are sims?”

Clint blinked. “Is this another test?”

Steve frowned and went to get Coulson.

****

Tony made a face at Steve’s retreating back. Clint had moved to the end of the couch and was watching him carefully. “No tests, Clint. As an adult you have a floor here that belongs to you.”

Clint blinked. “Adult?”

“Nevermind that right now.” Tony sat down and restart the level of _Rune Raiders_ Clint had been on. “Here, go back to playing.”

With a worried look, Clint climbed over the end of the couch to sit and he took the tablet. “I’m hungry.”

“Oh, uh. Okay.” Tony looked down at Clint’s bent head. “Do you know what you want to eat?”

“Today should be asparagus...”

“What?” Tony narrowed his eyes at Clint’s innocent expression. “You _want_ vegetables?”

Clint gave him a weird look. “What else am I allowed?”

****

Natasha stepped between Coulson and the elevator automatically. She really needed to work on not having that reaction, but she kept putting it off. 

Steve stuck his out of the elevator. “Something is weird with Clint.”

Coulson pushed past Natasha and she followed him into the elevator.

They rode up in silence. Natasha stood just inside the door.

“What are you feeding him?”

Tony looked like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. “Uhm. Food?”

Clint held up a forkful of what looked like mustard potato salad. “I like it!”

Tony patted him on the head and herded everyone out into the hallway. He _grabbed_ Natasha’s arm as he did. Which she allowed because Stark looked like he was about to have a conniption fit at any moment.

They got into another room and Tony leaned against the wall next to the door.

“Something is wrong with that boy.”

Natasha repressed the urge to roll her eyes. “He’s supposed to be an adult for one.”

Tony glared at her. “No shit.” He pushed off the wall and flopped into the nearest arm chair. “He has never had potato salad. Seriously? I mean, okay, so I was like eleven the first time I got any, but different standards, you know? I knew what overpriced finger foods were by the time I was four. Barton was normal-ish until his parents died, wasn’t he? He grew up in _America_. How the hell doesn’t he know what potato salad even is?”

Steve crouched in front of Tony. “Why did you feed him potato salad?”

“He wanted vegetables. Potatoes are a vegetable.” Tony looked past Steve to Coulson. “That’s not normal, right?”

Coulson moved to stand next to Steve. “It depends on the child. Has he asked about family?”

Steve turned his head and looked up at Coulson as Tony shook his head. 

Natasha eased closer. “He’s an orphan by now.”

“He hasn’t said anything about his brother?” 

They all stared at Coulson. Tony blinked. “What brother?”

****

Bruce looked up as the miniature Clint came into his lab. JARVIS had been kind enough to tell Bruce when the results were ready to view, so Bruce had come back up to his lab.

“Hey there.”

Clint froze and watched him over the top of the table. “Can I stay here?”

Bruce rubbed his hands together. “Sure.”

With a wide grin, Clint scrambled up onto the stool Tony usually used. “I upset Mr. Stark somehow.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Bruce flipped to the next report. “It is easy to upset Tony sometimes.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes went by in silence and then it occurred to Bruce a quiet Clint was dangerous thing, so he looked up only to find Clint in the far corner, huddled down to a little heap, sleeping.

As Bruce got up to move the child to the couch, he noticed the screen was on where Clint had been sitting. An alert popped up on his phone with a beep. Burce found it was a message saying one his equations had been solved. 

Bruce looked from the boy to the screen and back again. Then he gently picked up Clint, who muttered about not wanting to in his sleep, and Bruce settled him on the couch. He covered him with a blanket. 

****

Bruce came into the small living room closest to the elevator on the common floor. “Something is weird with Clint. Other than the being a child problem.”

Everyone nodded, which he’d not expected.

“Tell us something we don’t know.” Tony tapped on his tablet.

“Clint can solve math equations like you can.”

Tony’s head came up fast. “What?”

Bruce pulled up the footage from his lab on the closest wall screen. “Watch.” 

They all watched as little Clint got bored and solved the equation while keeping an eye on Bruce, who was oblivious.

Coulson cursed. They all jumped because he never cursed. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Natasha. “Call Thor and tell him we need him to come back from his date. He can bring Dr. Foster with him if he wants.”

Bruce followed Coulson as he left the room.

****

Tony hurried after Bruce and Coulson with Steve bringing up the rear. They stood back as Coulson started to approach Clint and the boy started to scream.

“Fuck.” Tony pulled on Coulson and shoved them all out into the hallway. Bruce came back in a few moments later. Tony held his hands out so that Clint could see them. “Hey, hey, calm down.”

“No!” Clint climbed onto the back of the couch. “NO! I won’t go back! I like it here.” He started to cry.

Coulson eased past Tony, now in his undershirt without his tie, dress shirt, or jacket. “Clint. I’m not going to take you anywhere.”

Clint shook his head. “I don’t want to go!”

Coulson sat down on the floor in front of the couch and looked up at Clint. “You don’t have to, but this is important. Please.” He pointed at Tony. “Before Mr. Stark called you Clint what was your name?”

“They said if I was good I’d get to stay.” Clint curled his legs up and put his chin on his knees. “I’ve been good. I have.”

With a nod, Coulson scooted closer. “You’ve been very good. You get to stay, but it is very important right now that you tell me your name.”

Clint sniffled. “I had a number. I don’t want to be called 294.”

Tony grabbed Bruce’s arm. “What?”

Coulson held a hand out to indicate for them to shut up. “We can’t call you Clint, because my agent who is missing is called that, but how about we call you his middle name, Francis? It’ll annoy him to no end.”

The boy rubbed his eyes. “I don’t have to go back?”

“No.” Coulson stood up. “If you draw me the layout of the place you were before, I’ll make certain they’ll never be able to recover enough to even think about looking for you.”

****

They were all gathered around the very detailed layout of the floor the child they were now calling Francis, had drawn. Coulson, back in his customary suit and tie, pointed at the wireframe. “This is the Centre.”

Tony cocked his head. “And what is that, exactly?”

“It is a corporation funded by the Council, but not normally claimed to actually exist. I only know about it because I was undercover as a Cleaner for less than a week.” Coulson swept his hand down his tie. “They aren’t very nice to work for.”

Thor put his fists on the edge of the table and leaned forward. “How long until we can begin the raid to retrieve our shield brother?”

“The sooner, the better.” Coulson looked at each of them in turn. “We will not be able to get SHIELD support for this.”

Steve shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. We need to retrieve Agent Barton.” Steve reached out towards the wireframe. “Are we sure he’ll be held here?”

Coulson frowned. “Not entirely certain, but a review of the satellite imaging from the abduction leads me to believe that the Centre has taken him, yes.”

“Then let’s go get him.” Tony looked the layout over again as everyone left the room except Bruce. “I really thought it was him. A fucking clone, Bruce.”

Bruce nodded. “You had every reason to think it really was a de-aging bomb. We’ll get Barton back.”

“Yeah. In how many pieces?” Tony flicked the wireframe into a spin. “He was just starting to not worry Natasha and Coulson. They had just quit watching every little move he made. Now this.”

“We’ll worry about that when we have him back.” Bruce stuck his finger out to stop the wireframe from moving. “If the other guy hits too many of the support pillars the whole structure falls in.”

“I’ve thought about that.”

“Tony. I’m really mad about this whole thing. The more I learn the madder I’m getting.” Bruce grimaced. “The other guy won’t be listening to anyone.”

Tony nodded. “We’ll see.”

****

They used a personal jet of Tony’s to get to Delaware. They touched down and Tony pulled Natasha away from the rest of the team as they got ready. 

“I need you to kidnap someone.”

Natasha glared at him. “Not now, Stark.”

“I’m serious.” Tony held out a piece of paper to her. “We’re going to need her.”

Natasha read the paper. “Oh.” She looked at the team and then back at Tony. “You had better get him out alive, Stark.”

Tony nodded. “We will.”

****

Clint hadn’t slept. He couldn’t remember how long he’d been in the heat and light, the noise was piercing and kept him awake. The only thing that made it bearable was that it wasn’t Loki in his head. Clint tried to move, but he was strapped down again. He could vaguely remember having broken someone’s nose in an attempt to escape.

The noise changed. There was suddenly a low rumble to go with the high pitched noise. Clint tried to focus, but then there was a roaring thing blocking the bright lights.

Clint licked his split lip. “Hey.”

His restraints were ripped loose and Clint smiled as the Hulk picked him up.

****

Natasha knocked on the house’s front door. She glanced around to see if there was more Army surveillance she needed to knock out.

“Coming!”

She turned back just as the door opened slightly.

“Yes?”

“Betty Ross?”

Betty narrowed her eyes. “Who are you?”

Natasha smiled softly. “I’m Agent Romanoff from the Avengers Initiative. I work with Dr. Banner.” She nearly snapped Betty’s wrist as the woman grabbed her.

“Where is he?” She was fierce and _mad_.

“I can see why he likes you.”

Betty blinked. “What?”

Natasha gently disengaged Betty’s hand from her shirt. “Bruce needs your help.”

****

Tony stayed high and helped contain the flood of people coming out of the Centre as the Hulk rampaged below. He had JARVIS sorting them into groups. The children, most seemingly having never been outside from the couple of panic attacks about the sky he’d seen, were being herded by Coulson. 

The “Cleaners’ were mostly being knocked out as they kept trying to kill people. Thor kicked a few of them harder than Tony had ever see him be towards mere mortals.

One older man had just stood and smiled creepily the whole time. Tony tagged his image to make sure someone figured out who the hell he was.

The Hulk emerged from the smoldering rubble with a human in his arms. Tony swooped in and landed near him. He faced a deafening roar and then he was being handed Barton. Who was _alive_. Which meant Tony wasn’t going to have to be killed by Natasha any time soon.

“Thanks.” 

The Hulk looked down at them for a few moments before he turned and dropped back into the hole he’d climbed from. Tony turned with Barton in his arms and yelled for Thor.

The ground beneath them trembled and Captain America appeared at Tony’s elbow.

“Give him here, Iron Man. Get the Hulk out of there.”

They passed Barton from his arms to Steve’s. 

“Will do.” Tony grimaced since no one, but JARVIS could see it. “How bad is the structural integrity, JARVIS?”

“It appears to be severely compromised, sir.”

“Great.” Tony dropped further down as the scans showed no people and no Hulk. “Damn it.” 

Finally at the bottom level, three further down than any plans JARVIS had been able to hack had even shown, Tony found the Hulk ripping out a main support pillar.

“Hey, Hulk!”

The Hulk just ignored him and kept pulling pieces from the pillar. 

Tony cursed and opened his comm channel. “Cap, I’m going to have to piss the Hulk off to get him out of here. Be ready.” Tony clicked off before he had to hear Steve yell at him. “Hulk, I’m really, really sorry.” He readied his repulsors. “JARVIS as soon as I hit him, kick it.”

“We are ready, sir.”

Tony took one last breath and hit the Hulk with his repulsors on full. The Hulk staggered and turned to roar at him. Tony’s thrusters fired and he could _hear_ the Hulk following him up and out.

Tony almost made it out of range, but evidently the Hulk could jump better than he’d ever shown around anyone with a video camera. He caught Tony’s right foot and the HUD screamed at Tony about it as they fell to the ground.

“Fuck!” Tony curled into a ball and waited. The Hulk held him down with a foot and roared. Tony tried to stay still as another roar reverberated through the suit.

“Bruce!”

“Thank fuck.” Tony turned his head to see Betty standing with Natasha just in front of her.

The Hulk stopped mid-roar and stood with most of his weight still on Tony. He panted.

“Bruce!” Betty didn’t try to get closer and the Hulk stepped off Tony’s suit to turn fully towards Betty.

The ground rumbled again as what was left of the Centre collapsed completely. 

****

Bruce woke up with a groan. He was in the refuge room. Tony was asleep in a pile of pillows and Clint was beside him, awake and shaking. “Hi.”

Clint closed his eyes. “Hey. Can you keep watch now? I want to sleep, but no one else can get in.” He leaned forward. “They might come for me and I don’t want them to get any of you.”

Betty came from the bathroom. “Tony said the hatch is one way and you fell asleep before we could convince you to open the door back up.” She nodded her head at Clint. “He won’t let me keep watch. He keeps saying I’m too important to you to lose.”

Bruce grabbed Betty into a hug. “You are completely crazy.”

She laughed as she hugged him back. “Agent Romanoff seemed to think that’s why you like me.”

He turned his head to rest it on top of Betty’s head and looked at Clint. “I’ll keep watch, Clint. Go to sleep.”

Clint relaxed between breaths and was asleep in seconds.

“They just let the other guy trap you all in here?”

Betty smiled. “We weren’t trapped. Tony did something to that suit of his and it sort of fell off in a pile. We put the parts in a cupboard in the bathroom. Which has that clever human sized hatch.” She looked around. “You seemed to like it in here.”

He rubbed his hand through his hair. Clint was twitching and whimpering in his sleep. Tony was frowning and Betty was just smiling serenely. “How much damage was there?”

“Well, you collapsed a building with 27 sublevels and rescued about a hundred children and adults of various ages.” She gestured at Tony. “He made you mad at him so you didn’t end up under all the rubble.”

Bruce knelt down and checked Tony over. “Did I hurt him?”

“We had a little trouble getting his foot out of the suit where it had crumpled, but he kept saying it could have been much worse.”

Bruce frowned. He was going to have words with Tony about aggravating the other guy.

****

Natasha didn’t relax until they’d gotten Barton settled in his own bed on his own floor and the medical scans said his blood was clear of any drugs.

She watched Tony hover for a while before pulling him down to sit beside her. “You made the right call.”

“Wow, coming from you that’s high praise. Well, you know that, I’m sure.” He flexed his right foot. “Think he’ll be okay?”

She looked at the pale, still, form of Clint and lifted her chin. “We’ll make sure he gets there. And we’re not letting him be taken again.”

Tony leaned his head back. “Good. I’d hate to have to piss off the Hulk on another rescue mission.”

“How did you know we would need Dr. Ross?”

Tony shrugged one shoulder and he let his eyes close. “He said he was getting madder with everything we learned about the place. I figured if they had more people he was going to get mad enough he’d quit listening completely.”

“Why send me?”

“I figured she might listen to you without having to resort to actual kidnapping.”

She nodded thoughtfully. 

****

Coulson quietly stepped past Natasha and Stark sleeping on the couch and stepped over Rogers sleeping on the floor. Clint was shaking in his sleep, the covers thrown off down to his knees. 

He carefully untangled Barton’s foot from the covers and rearranged the blankets until Clint quit shivering. Suddenly, Clint’s eyes snapped open.

He bolted upright. “Coulson?”

Coulson tried not to cringe where his scar had pulled as he’d flinched from Clint’s sudden movement. “Yes, Barton.”

Clint looked around vaguely. “Is this a hallucination, sir? I was told I’d killed you.”

“No hallucination, Agent Barton. You just caused me a lot of paperwork.”

Clint fell back on the bed. “Oh. You like paperwork, don’t you?” He blinked slow and Coulson soothed him as muscles tremors tore through his arms. “I didn’t like it.”

“I know, Barton. You won’t be going back there.”

He turned his head and made a noise in his throat as Coulson tucked the blankets tighter. “Hulk.”

Coulson patted Clint’s chest. “Yes, the Hulk tore apart the building you were being held in and proceeded to insist you stay with him in his room downstairs.”

Barton’s eyes popped open and then slid back closed. “Huh. Must be real. I didn’t tell them about Hulk’s room.”

Coulson thought for a moment. “Did you tell them about teaching the Hulk yoga?”

“Hmmm. No.” Barton smiled. “I’m home.”

“Yes.” Coulson looked down at Steve watching them and nodded. Steve nodded back. “And we’ll keep it that way, Agent Barton.”

****


	2. Information Gathering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More about the Centre is learned and Francis learns about animated movies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is talk of child abuse in this chapter. Clint is a little more ambivalent about certain things than anyone would like.
> 
> I choose the movie I did for Francis' first movie because when it came out I took a child I was babysitting to see it. I'd never seen a theater full of children sit through a whole movie. The whole lot of them. I've only ever seen it one other time and I didn't think _Harry Potter_ would go over what with the live action/magic to confuse poor Francis. ;)

****

Bruce found Francis huddled under Tony’s workshop desk. Tony was repairing the right foot of his armor with the music only slightly too loud. “Hi.”

Francis looked up from his tablet. “Hello.”

Bruce settled himself on the floor and leaned around the corner of Tony’s desk to watch him work for a moment before refocusing on the boy. “Thank you for helping us find Clint.”

He looked up at Bruce in surprise. “Uhm, you’re welcome?” He frowned and looked down at his tablet. “Do you know what the noise is? Mr. Stark just shook his head and said he’d explain later. Then he started banging on that boot.”

“It's Tony’s favorite kind of music.” He held out his hand. “How about you come with me and we get Tony some food?”

Francis smiled and crawled out from his hiding spot. “Tony is hungry.”

“Yeah.” Bruce typed a note that he’d taken Francis and that he was not pleased with Tony’s way of saving the other guy which meant they were going to have a talk onto Tony’s main screen. He picked up Francis, who stiffened and held his breath. “Sorry, I’ll...just put you back down.”

Francis grabbed on to him. “No! I’m okay.” He licked his lips. “I like when you treat me like I am more than a Pretender.”

Bruce sighed. “I would like you to explain what being a Pretender is, if you don’t mind.” He hefted Francis a little higher on his hip. “Let’s go find some food first.”

****

Coulson went looking for Clint five seconds after he found the man’s bed empty. Thor and Steve were sleeping, and from the look of it, Clint had gone out through the ceiling. 

Phil took his suit jacket off, then his tie, and finally his dress shirt. Then he sighed as he pulled a chair over to be able to scramble up into the air duct, his chest and back complaining the whole way. “I should just sic Natasha on you, Barton.”

He crawled until he hit a junction where Stark had enlarged the duct more than would be considered normal. Clint had a small nest there with blankets stolen from team movie nights. The man himself was huddled under several blankets in the back corner of the nest.

“Agent Barton.” Coulson eased himself up until he could see Clint clearly. “Report, Barton.”

Clint blinked and his fingers curled further into the blanket he was pulling around himself. “Compromised, sir.”

Phil sighed and pulled himself the rest of the way into Barton’s nest. “I know that, Clint. Now what else is there to report?”

Clint thumbed his split lip. “I’m not who I said I was?”

Phil carefully gathered Clint to him, blankets and all. “I know that too. It doesn’t change who you are to this team, Barton.”

With a snort, Clint leaned into his embrace. “I told them _no_. I said I wouldn’t do it anymore.”

It took a lot of soothing, but Phil finally managed to get Clint to sleep. He eased them back against the wall of the ductwork and sighed as his chest went from aching to hurting like a bitch.

Phil worked his phone out of his pocket and dialed. “Natasha, tell Cap that I’m in the ducts with Barton and not to come in after us.”

****

Natasha muttered to herself as she hung up from talking to Coulson. She settled herself on Clint’s bed and started looking through the files JARVIS had managed to pull off the Centre’s mainframe before the Hulk had destroyed the place. It was a lot of information.

She ignored anything on females, skimmed a bit on recovery methods for drug inductions, and finally stopped at Pretenders. She frowned as she found Clint. It was even labeled Clint, with codes for dates. She pulled up the oldest one.

“Where’s Clint?” Steve was rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

She pointed at the chair with Phil’s shirt, jacket, and tie draped over it. “In the ducts with Coulson. He said not to come in after them.”

Steve glanced at the opening and then stretched. He looked at Thor still sleeping in the armchair against the far wall. “I wouldn’t fit anyway.” He settled on the edge of the bed and looked at her screen. “What have you found?”

“Clint’s childhood.” She clicked the video file and then watched silently.

The view point was from up high, so she figured security footage. The tiny boy, Clint, on screen fitted a final block to the tower he was building. “I’m finished now! Can I go home?”

An adult appeared and backhanded Clint. “You were sold to us! You don’t have a home.” He took Clint by the scruff of the neck and turned him to look at the tower of blocks. “You are only as good as the last completed simulation you run.” Then the man knocked apart the tower and told Clint to do it again, better this time.

Little Clint took heaving breaths, obviously trying to control his sobbing, as he picked up blocks.

Natasha turned it off. “If the Hulk hadn’t of already tore that place down...”

Steve pulled her into a one arm hug. “We would have blown it sky high. I promise you that.”

She turned her face into his neck for a moment before pulling away. “I’m going to see if there is video of what they did to him while we thought he was de-aged.”

Steve cleared his throat and stood up. “I need to go find Stark. If you can get them out of the ducts we’ll all bunk down in the movie watching room.” He laid his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t view too much of that in a stretch, please.”

She nodded seriously as she opened another video.

****

Steve found Tony in his workshop with Francis and Bruce. They were eating. Steve stepped inside and the boy’s eyes got huge.

“You’re bigger than any of the Cleaners.”

Tony motioned Steve to come over. “Francis was just telling us about his life before he came to live with us.” Tony looked down at the boy. “He liked his math simulations best.”

Francis ducked his head and picked at the taco he had been eating. “Angles are fun.”

Bruce looked at them both and then raised his eyebrows at Steve. With a flick of his head, Steve tried to explain needing to talk to Tony without saying anything. 

Bruce seemed to get it as he grabbed up plates. “Come with me Francis, we’ll find Betty, and she can show you fractals.”

They left with Francis casting worried looks back at them. Tony looked up at Steve and then waved at the seat across from him.

“What’s got your panites in a bunch, Cap?”

Steve forced himself to ignore Tony’s awful word choice. “They abused Clint.”

Tony nodded. “JARVIS darken the wall and don’t let Francis back in for right now.”

“As you wish, sir.” The glass wall and door went dark and there was a clank in the door frame. 

“Pull up the footage we’ve sorted on Clint and mini-Clint. Find me that one where they drown him.”

Steve sat down in a daze. “Drown him?”

Tony shrugged as the screen next to him flared to life with a video of a teenage Clint being held underwater. “It looks like a precursor to SEAL training or something. Torture-proofing?” Tony flicked his fingers and the view changed to a smaller Clint in camouflage fatigues. “They had him pretending to be a prisoner of war at eight years old. Eight!”

“That wasn’t the bad stuff.”

Steve and Tony both jumped as Clint slipped out of the ceiling onto his corner perch. Behind him came Phil at a much slower pace.

Tony snorted. “They half-drowned you. Starved you. What exactly do you consider to be worse, Barton?”

Clint calmly flicked through the files and started one up. “Jarod had already done this. They were having me do it to ‘check’ his work. He’d started to really rebel by then. I hadn’t yet. I didn’t have anyone to tell me what was happening wasn’t normal.” Clint pointed at the equations he was writing in the video. “What’s that look like to you?”

Tony squinted and then his face twitched and he pulled back. “Damn.” He grabbed Clint’s arm and pulled him down between Steve and Tony until his face was inches from Tony’s. “You are not responsible. At all.”

Clint shrugged. “Jarod came up with it. I’m sure they told him it was for some medical application, rather than bioweaponry applications.”

Steve tried to work out what was happening in the video. “What is it?”

Tony turned it off. “Anthrax.”

Coulson pinched the bridge of his nose. “I need to call Director Fury.”

Clint flipped to another video. “This one I didn’t mind so much. Pretending you was sort of cool.”

They watched as a very small child, Clint, in a tailored tuxedo spat at an adult. “I’ll make you all sorry!”

Tony gasped. “Shit, shit, shit!” He threw a hand out and shoved the screen backwards. The video froze and Tony stood there, hunched in on himself, breathing hard.

Steve looked at Clint, who seemed worried. Coulson took Steve’s elbow and propelled him towards Tony, then Coulson gathered up Clint and they left, through the door. Steve eased up to Tony who had clamped a hand over his mouth and was taking deep breaths through his nose.

“Tony?”

Tony shook his head, with his hand still on his mouth and then started blinking fast. He dropped his hand. “I need Pepper.” He started fumbling for his phone. Steve got it out from under a pile of debris on Tony’s desk and handed it to him. Tony smiled wide. “Thanks, Cap.”

Steve hated that particular smile because it was Tony’s emptiest one. “Tony, why don’t you sit down, okay?”

Tony more fell into his chair then sat, but it was better than nothing. Steve hovered as Tony called Pepper.

“What, Tony? I’m in the middle...”

“I need a school, Pepper.”

“You need a what?”

Tony flicked through the videos absently. “I need a school. Last night I might have helped liberate 87 children ranging in age from four years old to adult, all with no parents because the place they were being held in had the parents killed. Most of them are currently in the hospital because they’d never been outside since being taken. The panic attacks rivaled anything I’ve ever come close to having. And I’m not about to put them into the foster care system willy-nilly.”

“Tony, what are you talking about?”

Tony frowned and held the phone out to him. “Here, you talk to her.” Then he wandered out of the workshop.

“Ma’am?” 

Pepper sounded exasperated. “Is he drunk? Did he get _drunk_ around a de-aged Clint?”

“Uhm. No.” Steve suddenly remembered he could take the phone with him, so he started after Tony. “Clint wasn’t de-aged, it was actually something called a clone. Which no one has explained to me. Or what Anthrax is. Anyway, we got Clint back, but with him we also got a lot of other kids.”

“Clones!? Anthrax? Oh, my God.” There was a bunch of noise on Pepper’s side of the line. “I will be there in three hours. If Tony isn’t drunk then what was wrong with him?”

“He has shell shock, I think.”

“Why...No, nevermind. Three hours.”

“Thank you, Pepper.” He hit the red button that stopped the call as he caught up with and took ahold of Tony’s elbow. “Come on, this way, Tony.”

****

When Natasha appeared out of nowhere to herd Bruce and Francis into the big living room they used for watching movies, Bruce didn’t argue. She had that focused poise he remembered from before he first startled her. 

There was a pile of blankets and pillows someone had made out of the couch and the area in front of it. Thor was in the nearest corner and Betty smiled at them from the edge where she was smoothing out a blanket. Natasha lifted Francis directly into the middle of it.

“Have you gotten to watch any movies yet?”

Francis frowned. “I’m not allowed.”

Bruce closed his eyes to rein himself in and felt Betty’s hand touch his forearm. 

“It’s okay, Bruce.”

He nodded and crawled into the nest to sit next to Francis. 

“Well, you are allowed now, Francis.” Natasha spread a blanket over them. “You remember how we said you helped us find our teammate, Clint?”

Francis nodded.

“He’s going to met you and I don’t know how that will go because he’s really tired right now.”

“They hurt him.”

Bruce wrapped an arm around Francis’ back and he could feel the tension in his small muscles. “Yes, they did.”

Francis lifted his chin. “I won’t hurt him more. I promise.”

Natasha smiled at him. “I know.” She eased herself in beside Thor, who was watching silently.

Coulson appeared with Barton in tow, who froze in the doorway.

“Damn.” Clint blinked and rubbed his eyes. He stared and Francis stared back. Coulson nudged him and Clint came closer. “It wasn’t just Jarod.”

Francis cocked his head. “Do I have to run sims against him? I always lose.”

Clint crawled into the nest and leaned against Natasha. “Oh, no.” He closed his eyes. “No sims.”

Coulson, pulled on a sweatshirt as he settled on the floor with his back against the pile of pillows, facing the door. “You aren’t going to run sims, Francis.”

“Francis?” Clint’s eyes came open. “You named him _Francis_?”

Coulson grinned and turned his head to look at the boy. “Told you it would annoy him.”

Francis giggled and nodded.

****

Tony felt like he was walking through air that had somehow turned solid. Or frozen without freezing him. Something. He could tell he wasn’t working right, like his operating system had taken a bad hit from a hack or virus. He let Steve steer him because Tony was busy concentrating on breathing without choking or sobbing. They had picked apart his first kidnapping. Picked it apart and inflicted it on Clint. On who knows how many of those terrified kids.

He was going to find the part of the Council that had originated the Centre and he was going to tear them apart. He started plotting just how he was going to destroy them.

Twin noises of distress brought him out of it. Tony blinked several times and found both Clint and Francis giving him horrified looks.

“What? Was I talking out loud?” He flopped down between them and checked the rest of the group ranged around them. No one else looked horrified, so it couldn’t have been him plotting murder and mayhem then.

Clint wrapped his arm around Tony’s shoulders, which really felt odd. He thought about shrugging Clint off, but then Francis laid himself over so he was holding down Tony’s legs. Tony just let go and stopped thinking at all.

“No, you just felt...awful.” Clint closed his eyes with a sigh.

Steve settled at Tony’s feet, near Coulson. “What movie are we watching this time?”

Francis wiggled until his legs were across Bruce’s lap. “Ms. Betty said we should watch _The Lion King_. She says it is animated. What does animated mean?”

****

Coulson waited until most of them had fallen asleep partway through the sequel before calling the Director. “Boss, we have a problem.”

Fury looked up and then back down at something off screen and frowned. “I assume this has to do with the abduction of Dr. Elizabeth Ross.”

“Only peripherally, Boss.” Coulson frowned. “When I first came to SHIELD I was sent on a short mission in an attempt to get more solid intel on the Centre.”

Fury’s eyes snapped up at that. “What happened?”

Betty came around the end of the nest. “I wasn’t abducted.”

Coulson glanced at her and then back to the Director. “I might have allowed the Avengers to destroy the Centre’s main establishment. And sent into custody approximately a hundred and fifty adults while removing numerous subjects, to include children, from the premises.”

“And I wasn’t informed prior to the operation.”

Coulson let a some of his ‘fuck you, sir’ face show. “If I had informed you, sir, you would have been required to seek approval from the Council.”

Fury inclined his head in acknowledgement. “How badly is this going to go?”

“Stark is pissed off. Right along with Captain Rogers, Boss.”

With a nod, Fury frowned at something out of frame again. “Coulson are you already replacing those trading cards?”

He smiled. “No, sir. Stark has his AI doing it for him. I assume I’m supposed to be surprised when they give them to me.”

Fury’s face as Coulson ended the call was priceless.

He tapped his fingers on his chest near the tender side of his scar. “JARVIS, how are the children we rescued doing?”

Thor shifted and Coulson watched him as JARVIS rattled off the various conditions of the kids. 

“Thank you, JARVIS.”

Thor pushed his hair back out of his face. “We will not be required to relinquish Francis to a different authority?”

Coulson glanced at the sleeping heap of people beside him. “I’d like to see someone try to make us. We will need to establish proper identification for him though.” That was going to be mildly annoying. He supposed the easiest would be to make Francis Clint’s child on paper. Coulson looked at them where they were both flopped all over Stark and everyone was limp in sleep.

Betty sat cross-legged in front of him. “I was not abducted and I won’t allow anyone to say I was.”

Coulson nodded tiredly. “JARVIS, doesn’t Stark have something drawn up to employ Dr. Ross in Stark Tower?”

“The contract for Dr. Ross to become a consultant is stored on the local server, sir.”

Betty covered her mouth with her hands. “Oh.” She bounced a little. “I...really?”

Coulson nodded and jerked a thumb at Stark. “He does occasionally plan ahead.”

She beamed and wrapped up Coulson in a tight hug. 

****


	3. A hit list for the Hulk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More talking and hugs. Plans start to form up. A short food fight ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mustard gas is/was horrible stuff. In its own way even worse than anthrax. One of my Grand-Uncles lost a lung to mustard gas.

****  
Pepper wasn’t pleased. Not that she wasn’t used to the feeling from working for Tony for so long. She stared at the tangle of people on the couch. “Are any of you awake?”

Thor smiled at her and put his finger to his lips. 

She wanted to know who the hell taught him that one so she could kick them. She crooked her finger at him. She waited by the door as he extracted himself from the nest of people and blankets.

As soon as he was close enough she grabbed his arm and drug him out into the hallway. He smiled widely as he allowed her to pull him with her. She headed for the nearest office.

“Clones?”

He nodded. “Young Francis is a clone of my shield brother, Barton.”

“Francis? Since when did he...Nevermind.” She rubbed her temples. “Okay. Everyone is alive and in one piece? No anthrax laying around?”

Thor nodded. “We vanquished the Centre, but I am certain they will attempt to regroup. I have not heard of this ‘anthrax’ you speak of.”

She mentally translated that into ‘needs a cover story, stat’ and she sighed. “Alright. Tony said he needed a school?”

“There were many rescued children with no family to return them to. The Son of Coul has assured me that JARVIS is tracking the healing of them all.”

She thought about where to get the money for a school without messing with any of the carefully constructed timetables she had in place. Then it occurred to her. “Did anyone say where the Centre was getting its money?”

Thor shook his head. “I know not, Mi’lady.”

Pepper smiled. “Well, we’ll just have to see, won’t we?”

****

Steve hit the punching bag harder as someone came into the gym behind him. He got tired of piddling around and punched with all his strength instead of holding back. The bag went flying.

“Nice one.”

Steve didn’t turn as he pulled the tape off his hands. “What do you want?”

Coulson settled on the bench against the nearest wall. “I realized that you probably didn’t know what anthrax was.”

“I could ask JARVIS to look it up.”

“And JARVIS would tell Stark in his next report.”

Steve huffed. “Tony is a yenta.”

Coulson raised his eyebrows. “How much do I need to pay you to get you to say that to Stark’s face?”

“Depends.” Steve sat down next to Coulson. “So, what is anthrax?” Steve listened carefully as Coulson explained. “So like mustard gas, but far worse?”

“Close enough, yes.” Coulson straightened the cuff of the sweater he’d taken to wearing so he wouldn’t upset Francis. “Weaponized anthrax has killed a lot of people. And been used to threaten millions.”

Steve nodded. “What do they call shell shock now?”

Coulson blinked. “Do you think you have shell shock?”

“No...well, maybe.” Steve shrugged. “I meant Tony.”

“Ah.” Coulson leaned back against the wall behind him. “It is currently called post-traumatic stress disorder, but they are fighting about the name again.”

“Shell shock is easier to say, that’s for sure.” Steve leaned back as well. “What’s a clone?”

Coulson sighed and started to explain.

****

Bruce had settled into his favorite chair in the room next to the other guy’s room. He figured it was better safe than sorry as he pulled up the data from the Centre. He found JARVIS had already arranged it. Presumably for Tony. 

Clint appeared in the doorway. “Hey, Doc.”

“Hey.” He gestured to a chair. “You want to sit down?”

Clint padded slowly over to him and sat on the floor by his feet. “This okay? I just...I need skin contact right now.”

Bruce touched Clint’s shoulder and gently pulled him closer. “Sure. Whatever you need, Clint.”

“They insisted I had killed everyone. Even you. Natasha says it would be hard to kill you.” Clint leaned against Bruce’s leg. “I was never as happy as when the Hulk came.”

He threaded his fingers through Clint’s hair slowly. “I take it they lied to you a lot.”

Clint hummed as Bruce rubbed little circles on his scalp. “I didn’t know how much until I escaped. I thought everybody did sims. I thought all that blood and pain was _normal_.” He turned so the back of his head was under Bruce’s hand. “The best sim I ever did was Stark being kidnapped as a kid.”

“What?” Bruce kept up the movement of his hands so Clint wouldn’t know how upset he was becoming.

“It was glorious. I was _brave_. And so very mad. I’d never been mad like that before. I didn’t think it’d upset him so much to know.” Clint sighed and sprawled more against Bruce’s leg. “Thanks, Doc.”

Bruce cradled Clint’s head in his hand as the man dropped off into sleep. “Not a problem.” He took deep even breaths and clicked the tablet onto mute before randomly picking a video and playing it. It was Clint, adult and naked, strung up with flood lights pointed at his face. There were several men taking turns punching various places on Clint, who looked like he was reciting something.

With a tap, Bruce brought up subtitles and read as Clint repeated ‘owner of a botnet computer’ over and over. Bruce lost it.

The Hulk looked down at the tablet showing mean things being done to his bendy friend, Hawk. He squinted at the bad men as he tried to better see their faces. The tablet suddenly went blank and the Hulk pushed it away from them. 

He rubbed his fingers across Hawk’s head and frowned at the tears on Hawk’s face. He remembered Betty having tears when she have been sad. He gently lifted Hawk up and went looking for his room. The mean Spaceman’s small birds might make Hawk happier.

He triggered the door for his room and smiled wide as it opened right up. He gently lay Hawk on the pillows and settled next to him. “Small birds.”

The screen came to life with the small birds in their tiny nest and he touched the door control gently. The door slid closed. He couldn’t smash the bad men that had hurt his Hawk so he’d just have to make Hawk feel better until he could find the bad men.

Hulk gathered Hawk close to his side and waited for him to wake up to tell him where the bad men were.

****

Tony cursed as his main screen flashed him a Hulk alert. JARVIS helpfully popped up a video sub-screen showing Bruce watching some of the Centre footage. He glanced at Francis playing his tablet under the desk and looked for his phone. Finding it he called Natasha. “I need some help.”

“You always need help.” She sounded amused, which boded well for him talking her into babysitting.

“Come watch the kid for me.”

“You are assuming I have a maternal instinct.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Oh, please. I think you have enough brains not to let him kill himself.”

“And I should consider that high praise?” She appeared at his glass wall.

He would swear it was teleportation except he’d only finished phase 1 of that project. He clicked off his phone as she came into his workshop. “Hulk just made an appearance and JARVIS seems worried he’ll go looking for smash-able targets.”

She settled in his chair and flicked her fingers across the screen menus until she had Centre video up and playing. She looked over at him. “Why are you still standing there?”

“What are you watching?”

“Clint’s childhood.” She settled back in his chair. “I’m memorizing each face that isn’t Clint’s.”

“Ah.” Gathering a hit list he could totally get behind. He turned and headed for the bottom level. “JARVIS, how are Clint’s vitals?”

“Agent Barton appears to be asleep.”

“He didn’t wake up? Bruce transformed right beside him.” Tony stopped off on Bruce’s floor to pick up extra pants to take down. 

“He did not, sir. The pattern of Agent Barton’s sleep has changed considerably since his rescue.”

Tony rubbed his hand across his beard. “As bad as mine after Afghanistan?”

“He is at least sleeping in the presence of his teammates.”

Tony wrinkled his nose. “Trust is earned, JARVIS.”

“Indeed, sir.”

With a grimace, Tony stepped out onto the Hulk’s floor. He went down past the room Bruce had transformed in and stopped in front of the Hulk’s room. “Let him know I’m out here, JARVIS.”

“Right away, sir.”

****

Francis looked up from his math program to find Tony gone and the pretty lady, Nat, in Tony’s chair. “Hello.”

She glanced down at him. “Hello.” She turned off the screen in front of her with a flick of her fingers. “I’ll be here until Tony gets back.”

He looked at the door. “Cleaners won’t get him, will they?”

She raised her eyebrows. “Since I killed a lot of them and Stark isn’t leaving the tower, no, probably not.”

He stared at her. “You killed Cleaners?”

“Yes.” She frowned. “What?”

Francis carefully crawled out from under the desk and patted Dum-E as he tried to take the tablet from the floor. “Can you teach me how to kill Cleaners?”

“Oh.” She blinked and then Coulson tapped on the glass wall. She stood up. “Come on, kid.”

He held out his arms like he’d figured out would get Bruce to pick him up. She stared at him for a moment before gingerly hefting him. They went out of Tony’s workshop.

Coulson looked amused. “Enjoying motherhood, Natasha?”

“Shut it, Coulson.” She grinned at Francis before turning part way back towards Coulson, who was following them. “Francis wants to learn to kill people.”

Coulson just patted him on the shoulder. “When you are taller.”

Nat snorted. “He ought to at least learn throwing knives.”

“I will allow you to teach him defense. Escape and evade, but no, Agent Romanoff, you will not teach him to throw knives.”

She made a funny face at Coulson, batting her eyelashes at him. “Throwing knives are defense.”

“No wonder Agent Barton remembers Budapest differently.” 

She laughed at that and pulled Francis tighter to her side. “I’ll remember to tell Clint that.”

Coulson smiled at her back as they got into the elevator. Francis could feel it even though Coulson’s face didn’t change much.

****

The Hulk jumped as a Voice told him there was someone outside his door. He looked at the door and then wistfully at the screen with the small birds. The screen split and showed him mean Spaceman without his space suit beside the small birds. The Hulk could see that Spaceman was outside his door.

He touched the panel and the door slid open.

“Still talking to me after all, huh, Big Guy?” Spaceman came inside and looked around before settling across from Hawk. “You okay?”

“No smash.” Hulk closed his door and pointed at the place the Voice came from. “Voice?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. That was JARVIS. I thought you might remember him from when you are Bruce, but no, huh?”

Hulk frowned as he thought about it. “Hard.”

“Yeah, well, your head changes size and all.” Spaceman rubbed his hands together. “You know I’m sorry about having hit you, right? I had to get you out of there before it all collapsed on top of you. I don’t want you or Bruce hurt. Not that anyone would believe I’m the sort to protect someone.”

“Protect?”

Spaceman ran his hand over the back of his head. “Uh, yeah. Like...like you are doing with Hawkeye.” He pointed at Hawk. “You are trying to make sure no one can hurt him, right?”

The Hulk flopped down dejectedly. “No smash. Bad men not here.” He looked at the small birds and sighed. The screen changed to little furry brown things that chittered. He glanced at Spaceman, then pointed at the screen.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. If you sigh it’ll change the channel. You like otters?”

“Soft.” Hulk cocked his head. “Bad men come for Hawk?”

Spaceman raised his eyebrows. “Not if I have a say.” He cocked his head. “What about learning the bad men’s faces? Can you remember them the next time you’re...” He flopped his hands. “Green?”

He leaned forward to look Spaceman in the eye and was pleased when Spaceman didn’t flinch. “Army bad. Marine Coulson friend. Saved Spaceman.”

“Huh.” Spaceman patted the Hulk’s cheek. “Voice will show you things on the screen if you ask.” He looked at the screen. “JARVIS, let the Hulk call you Voice so we don’t have to try to get him to pronounce your name, alright?”

“Of course, sir. Will the Hulk require...Would the Hulk like to see the bad men?”

Hulk grinned. “Yes.”

Spaceman muttered to himself as he moved to sit next to Hawk. “Uh. Have to remember to check the code he used for that subroutine. Changing snantx on the fly for the user when the user is already defined...”

Hulk ignored the Spaceman’s soft words. The screen was busy showing him the men he would one day get to smash.

****

Bruce lifted his head and cursed. He sat up and rubbed his hand through his hair. “Why the hell can’t I control it better? I was doing...”

Tony appeared in the open doorway. “Bingeing.”

He looked up at Tony bewilderedly. “What?”

“Your body went a long time without changing. Then you spent nearly a whole afternoon green. You really think you’re going to shove it back into a box that fast?”

“I can try.” He rubbed his eye as a flashback hit him when he looked at the black screen. “People? The other guy was looking at people?”

“Centre hit list.” Tony held a hand out to him. “Agent Romanoff’s idea.”

“I’m sure.” He leaned on Tony for a moment after allowing himself to be pulled upright, before looking around. “Clint was with me...I...I didn’t hurt anyone did I?”

“Nah.” Tony lead him out into the hallway. “Clint slept right through it. Trauma fatigue and all. Betty was with Pepper doing paperwork to get her stuff moved, maybe annoy General Ross some more. And everyone else stayed upstairs.”

Bruce concentrated on remembering. “You showed up without your suit.” He pushed Tony into the wall behind him. “Are you completely insane?”

Tony flinched as he hit the wall and closed his eyes. “Do you really think you’d hurt me?”

“Betty said you had to piss off the other guy. You couldn’t have been certain he wouldn’t still be mad at you.”

Tony shrugged. “I wasn’t.” He grinned. “I hoped.”

Bruce shook his head. “You...” He pulled Tony into a tight hug. “Idiot.”

Failing for a minute, Tony finally settled down and hugged back.

****

Clint lay in the escape tunnel to the right of Bruce and Tony’s talking and smiled. It was good Stark was getting help. That they both were. Even if they’d never admit it. He rubbed his shaking hands over his face. Faking sleep was hard. He crawled down the tunnel until he hit the junction with the air ducts. He slithered up into the duct and climbed.

He bypassed the traps he’d put on the tenth floor and stopped to rest on the sixteenth. He finally climbed out of a ceiling on the twenty-third and rode the elevator the rest of the way up.

Francis was laughing as Clint entered the kitchen. He stopped and blinked at Coulson cooking. Nat looked like she was teaching Francis how to aim a fork.

“You aren’t teaching him knives?”

Francis looked up and stared at him. It was a little disconcerting because he knew exactly what he was doing when he looked like that. Pretending was second nature. Clint wasn’t sure there was anything in his head that was actually his besides his marksmanship. 

Natasha smiled. “Coulson vetoed it.”

Francis grinned and held his hand over his head. “He said when I’m taller.”

Clint settled into the chair across from Francis. “You won’t get much taller for a couple of years. If you grow like I did.”

“He didn’t say how much taller, just taller.”

Coulson sat a plate down in front of Francis. “Eat so you’ll get taller.”

Nat poked the edge of Francis’ plate. “What is that?”

Clint used the fork he stole from Nat’s hand to flip the split hot dog out of the macaroni and cheese. “Octopus-dog.”

Francis frowned. “It is made of octopus?”

Coulson sat down. “No, Francis. It is a beef hot dog cut to resemble an octopus.”

“Oh.” Francis looked at him and Clint smiled softly.

“Children play with their food.”

Francis shook his head. “That isn’t allowed.”

Clint nodded. “I know.” He touched a finger to the back of Francis’ hand. “It wasn’t allowed, but here in this place with these people...It is totally allowed.” He flicked a bit of macaroni up and landed it square on Coulson’s nose.

Francis squealed with laughter as Coulson retaliated with a glass of water thrown in Clint’s direction. Natasha flipped herself to the top of the counter behind her to get out of splash range and then stared as Francis copied her. Coulson froze when he saw that.

Clint stole Coulson’s plate. “Good job, kid. You need to remember to follow clear through. You can’t just copy it. You have to think about how your body differs from hers’ and compensate for it.”

Francis thought for a moment and then flipped himself back into his chair. “Like that?”

Clint pointed with his fork. “Very good. Eat your octopus-dog.”

Francis grinned and did just that.

****


	4. Natasha needs a Hug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint talks to people and freaks out Natasha, Tony and Bruce. Pepper does research with Francis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So in _The Pretender_ show they didn't exactly explain just what Jarod did to pretend something. And the only thing I remember Jarod having a heck of a time learning was golf. *shrugs* I stuck to what they did show as much as possible while giving more detail because Natasha demanded it, okay? Okay. ;)

****

Clint sat on the edge of the roof of the tower and listened to the wind. Natasha sat down next to him.

“I watched a sim where you were Banner.”

Clint shrugged. “They were trying to figure out what had gone wrong so they could make it work for making super soldiers.” He fidgeted with the fletching he’d brought out with him. “They didn’t like that I told them it’d never work like it had with Bruce.”

Natasha pulled out a knife and a wetstone. “You were drugged after that, right?”

He tucked a foot up under himself. “It was a mass experiment. I still don’t know what for. Coming down was a bitch.” He looked up at the sky. “We need to introduce Francis to the sky.”

She looked at him from the corner of her eye. “He knows what the sky is.”

“Knows about.” Clint laid back and watched the clouds. “When I escaped I spent four days hiding in a tunnel because the sky felt like it was pressing down on me.” He made a face as she looked at him. “I knew it wasn’t, Nat. Knowing and feeling are different things.”

She leaned her head back to look at the clouds above them. “Some of the children we rescued were having panic attacks during the op.”

“Yeah.” He smiled grimly. “I was terrified of windows for a couple of weeks. I knew it was irrational, just like the sky, but I kept thinking they would look in and see me.” He sat back up. “I liked the circus because, not only were there no paper trails, there were no windows and I got canvas between me and the sky.”

Nat nodded. “How does the pretending work exactly? In the few videos between sims you seemed...blank.”

“Pretenders are geniuses who can become anyone. Let’s say I want to...well, pick a profession.”

She looked at him like he was nuts. “Alright. Sniper.”

He grinned. “Okay. So, give me either a sniper to talk to or watch, or the textbook on snipers. A couple of hours later and I’d be able to shoot as good or better.”

“So, you don’t need met the person? Most of the sims I’ve watched don’t have the setup.” She tested the edge of the knife she was working on.

“No.” Clint flicked the fletching in his hand with a fingernail. “Like the prisoner of war sims. You’ve watched those?”

She nodded.

“I was supposed to find whether they’d still be alive. How they handled it being in captivity. I didn’t have anyone to ask. I had to intuit it all from the videos and files. Pretending in person is more clear.”

“Like Francis copying me.” She frowned. “If you are pretending, can you predict the outcome? Predict how I’m going to move in a fight?”

“Outcomes, most of the time. Predicting you is harder.” He touched his head. “When Loki had me I couldn’t pretend. I was just me trapped in my head. It was...wrong.” He leaned against her. “I’m usually pretending quite a bit. Some you, some Coulson, a little bit Thor. Since I started living here I’ve been Banner and Stark a lot.”

“Do you learn everything fast?”

He sighed. “Most everything. Sometimes something will be harder than I think it should be. Crochet sucked to learn.”

She snorted. “Knitting?”

“Twenty minutes and I was doing lace like a master.”

With a laugh, Nat stood and looked down at him. “You’ve never felt like Coulson to me.”

“Thanks, Nat.”

****

Coulson pushed open the door. “Everyone has a floor.” He looked down at Francis staring worriedly up at him. “Except you. Well, and now me. You have a room on the same floor as mine. We are between Clint and the common floor. Alright?”

Francis carefully touched the bedspread. “Alright.”

Phil mentally sighed. “Have you ever been outside?”

“The day I met Tony.” Francis looked around, craning his neck to see the ceiling. “It was _huge_.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Phil sat down on Francis’ bed. “Everyone will make the mistake of thinking you know something when you don’t.”

“Like the octopus-dog.” Francis crawled up onto the bed beside Phil.

“Yes.”

Francis pulled on Phil’s sweater sleeve. “You aren’t a Cleaner. I know that now, so you could wear your armor.”

Phil blinked. “I never say it is armor.”

“You like to think of it as armor.”

“Yes, I do.” Phil rubbed his hand across his face. “You shouldn’t pretend me like that.”

“Why?” Francis wiggled across the bed and hung his head off the side. “You are good.”

“Good?” Phil watched Francis nod with his head upside down and Phil bit his lip so he wouldn’t laugh at the sight. “Wouldn’t you rather be just you?”

Francis lifted his head. “I’m nothing.”

“What?” Phil leaned over so he could see Francis’ eyes. “What do you mean?”

Francis frowned. “I can’t explain it.”

Natasha appeared in the doorway and she shook her head at him. Phil felt his stomach clench. He patted Francis on the back. “That’s okay. Why don’t you explore your room?”

Francis rolled himself off the bed and landed in distinctly Natasha pose. “Yay!” He zipped off towards the closet as Phil closed the door to the room as he stepped out.

“What?”

She shook her head again and wrapped her arm around herself. The other hand came up to snag on his sleeve. “Barton talked to me.”

He eased her down the hallway towards his living room. “Okay? And how was that bad? Talking isn’t something he likes to do.”

“He...” She pressed her lips together in a thin line and shook her head. 

He nudged her towards his couch and he settled into an armchair. “He implied that he’s just the pretend?”

Nat’s head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes at him. “Sometimes I really hate when you do that.”

He shrugged. “Isn’t hard to work out. When he’s really tired, Barton’s speech patterns change depending on who he’s been near. The recovered information from the Centre seems to indicate that they don’t care for the pretenders past what they can do in the simulations.”

“He’s just so damn cocky. It is hard to see it.”

Phil nodded. “I think he’s picked up the cockness from Stark.”

She snorted. “It couldn’t have come from you or Director Fury at all, huh?”

He let himself smile at that.

****

Pepper frowned. The Centre had far too many shell companies for comfort. She sorted through the files. She stopped as she came across a fertility clinic. “Huh.” She opened it and frowned. “Damn it.”

“You don’t like to cuss.”

Pepper shrieked a little as she jumped. “Francis!” She forced her breathing to slow down. “I thought you were finding a room on Agent Coulson’s floor.”

“I did.” He climbed up beside her and looked at the files. “It is fluffy and soft.” He poked at the image for the fertility clinic. “Tony thinks you can do anything.”

She glanced around. “Did Tony put you up to this?”

Francis frowned. “Put up? What is that? No.” He opened a different file. “Stocks!”

“You like the stockmarket?”

“It is all math. Twisty math.” He moved files around, shoving things here and there. The holographic interface expanded to keep pace. “I like math.”

“Huh. Okay.” She started sorting files as Francis pushed them to her. “We need to appropriate enough money to fund a school and support 87 children.”

Francis looked up at her. “I won’t have to go there, will I? Tony said I can stay here forever.”

Pepper ruffled his hair. “If Tony said you can stay then you’ll stay. Tony owns the whole building.”

Francis beamed.

****

“If the kid is a clone of you, why does he like being under my desk and you like being up there?” Tony waved his hand at Clint’s perch.

“I didn’t always like heights. Francis is before that.”

Tony glared at him. “What did you do?”

Clint tumbled himself off the perch to the floor and came up inches away from a panicking Dum-E. “What makes you think it was my doing?”

“Your phobia, your cure.” Tony picked up a grease pen and started marking up the piece of metal in front of himself.

“I’m not you.”

“You were that one time.”

Clint settled on the top of Tony’s desk. “You want the real reason or some made up shit that’ll sound true?”

Tony smiled. “I can smell bullshit from a mile away.”

He made a noncommittal noise. “You’ve read the file that says I was homeless for a while.”

“Yes, I’m guessing that was right after you got out of there.”

“Well, no money, no real understanding of the world, yeah, pretty much.”

Tony threw down his pen and focused on Clint. “So?”

“I ended up in a circus. The one sure place to get out of my mentor’s way was up in the top of the hightop.”

“Ah.” Tony tapped his fingers on his arc reactor. “Could you tell me why I didn’t see Obie was crazy?”

“I don’t need to do a pretend for that, Stark.” Clint pushed the plasma cutter towards Tony’s elbow. “He went crazy slowly, Tony. You didn’t see the change. Just like when you were growing up and didn’t notice your hands were bigger until you couldn’t fit them into the computer tower casings anymore.”

Tony blinked. “Huh.” He picked up the plasma cutter and turned it around and around in his hands. “I’m mad they made you live my kidnapping.”

“I’m not.” Clint nudged Tony’s shoulder with his own as he passed Tony on the way out of his workshop. He could feel Tony’s stare on his back the whole way.

****

Bruce glanced up as Clint settled across from him. “Uh, hi.”

“Hey, Doc.” He finished one of the equations Bruce had up to occupy Tony. “I, well, I think you should know about one of the sims.”

Bruce settled himself with a deep breathe. “I think I can’t know about them.”

Clint smiled at him. “You should know about this one.”

With a small nod, Bruce moved his new favorite tea cup back on the counter. “Alright.”

“The Centre was hired by the Army to try to figure out what went wrong with you.”

He controlled his breathing, and nodded. “Doesn’t surprise me.”

“I got assigned the pretend. I...” Clint clenched and unclenched his fist. “I was you.”

Bruce’s breath stuttered to a stop.

“I told them why it’d never work with the parameters they were using.” Clint leaned forward. “They proved me right in Harlem.”

Blinking, Bruce licked his lips. “Right about what exactly?”

“Ask Steve what the difference between him and Schimdt was and you’ll find the answer.” Clint patted Bruce’s shoulder. “Doc, don’t worry that the Army will get another Hulk because they’ll never get another you.”

****


	5. Steve goes Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shopping, farms, and pets. It is all Steve's fault.

****

Steve slipped into the wing of the hospital and stood against the wall. He watched the children. Most of them were on the far side of the room from the windows and the few that were near the windows were pointing to each other about the bird just outside the glass.

He could tell the children all knew he was there and a few were openly staring at him. He frowned at the abandoned toys carefully lined up on a table. The children weren’t playing. None of them.

Steve took the bag he’d brought with him and settled in the middle of the floor. He spread sheets of paper around himself. Some at arms’ length so that the children could get them without fearing he’d grab at them. Then he opened the Crayolas he’d bought.

“Oh.” He’d wondered what colors they could have used to get 200 crayons in a single box. He’d been extremely happy with the 52 color box he’d gotten with the very first of his Army pay. He turned up the box and spilled the crayons out on the floor.

He ignored the way the children had gone very still around him. Steve pushed groups of colors away to the edge of his reach and then picked a color up and started drawing.

He had green so he started with the Hulk. As he finished that he set it aside and picked up another color and a new sheet of paper. He started drawing Black Widow. 

“Is this a sim?”

He glanced up to find a tiny girl standing at the edge of his mess. “No. This isn’t a sim. I’m Steve.”

She sat down and cocked her head. “You destroyed the Centre.”

“Uhm. Not just me.” Steve pointed at the picture of the Hulk. “The Hulk did a lot of it.”

She spread her little hands. “He was _big_.”

Steve smiled. “Yeah, he is big. He is my friend.” He nudged a crayon towards her with his fingertip. “Here.”

She scooted forward and grabbed up the crayon. “Do you know all their names?”

“You mean the Avengers?” He finished Black Widow and turned it so it was right side up to the girl. “This is the Black Widow. She’s my friend too.”

The girl touched the corner of the sheet. “She carried me. She was worried about all of us.” She looked up at him. “Which one was the robot?”

“Robot?” He frowned as he drew Coulson in his sweatshirt, since Steve knew Coulson’s suit would bother the children. “Ohhhh. You mean Iron Man.” 

She started drawing, pausing every little bit to check him. “He flew.” She made a plane motion with her hand. “I want to fly.”

Steve smiled at her. “You could be a pilot.”

“Really?” She turned her head and looked at the huddle of children watching the bird through the window. “Outside is scary.”

“You could get used to it.” Steve picked up a fresh sheet. “Is this place better than the Centre?”

She made a face at him like he was insane. “Of course it is. The nurses say we are little angels.” She moved closer to get a different color crayon. “Do you know what an angel is? We’ve talked, but none of us know.”

“This isn’t everyone we rescued, is it?” He knew it wasn’t there were only 36 children that he’d counted as he’d come in.

“No. The nurse said we are all the six year olds.” She frowned. “I think I’m seven though.”

“Oh? Why is that?” He started drawing Iron Man.

She put down her crayon and looked up at him. “I was four when the Centre killed my family. I remember three times when there were staff shortages because they had Christmas. I didn’t. I wasn’t supposed to remember Christmas, but that makes me seven.”

“You remember Christmas, but not angels.” 

She frowned at him. “I remember the name and that it happened once a year.”

“Ah.” Steve looked away from her and found he was surrounded by kids. They were creeping closer. He turned his eyes back to the girl. “Do you have a name?”

“Oh. I’m Hanna.” She passed a crayon to another child. “What is your name in the blue clothing?” She pointed at the picture of the Black Widow. “I don’t think she’s called Black Widow all the time. Is she?”

He laughed. “No, she isn’t. I am Captain America.”

She scrunched up her nose. “I like Steve better.”

“Thanks.” He finished Iron Man with a little flourish. “Here. You want this one?”

“Is this a test?”

He put the Iron Man drawing in front of her. “Outside of the Centre not everything is a test.”

“Uh huh.” She handed him the drawing she’d been working on. “Here.”

He traded the pictures and tucked the one from her into his bag.

****

Steve was exhausted by the time he left the hospital. He checked his watch. It had only been a couple of hours. He looked around at the city sprawled around him. He thought about the bird the children had been fascinated by. Then he grinned.

He pulled his phone from his pocket. “JARVIS?”

“Yes, sir?”

Steve smiled. Tony really was a yenta. “I need to find a farm for sale. Under one hundred acres. We’ll need enough room for buildings for that school Tony wants.”

“There are five farms meeting your specified criteria.”

“Give me the address of the closest one.”

His phone screen changed to show him a route. He smiled. “Better than an old paper map. Thanks, JARVIS.”

“You are welcome, Captain.”

Steve rode until he needed fuel. He fussed with the card that was supposed to pass for money until the pump beeped and gave him a receipt. Finally, he pulled up to the farm. Steve looked it over and quickly decided it wouldn’t work. 

The second address was much better. It had a huge old house that needed repaired, two large barns, and there was a nice level area that could hold the actual school. Steve found the phone number for the realtor. Then he remembered he needed pictures to show the others. 

It took him a few minutes to go back around and take photographs with the phone. That still made him shake his head. What the spies would have given for a camera with a phone all in one. 

Steve headed home. He stopped when he saw a sign at the hardware store at the highway junction with the farm’s road. He smiled and turned into the parking lot of the hardware store.

****

Bruce frowned at Steve as the man handed him a box. He looked down at the box. “Is that peeping?”

Steve grinned and hefted a bag onto his shoulder. “Yes.” He lead the way into the elevator. “What were you waiting for me for, Doc?”

“I was wondering... You don’t have to answer this, though. What happened that made Schmidt so different from you?” Bruce tried to look in one of the air holes.

Blinking, Steve leaned his head back against the elevator wall. “No, its okay. Dr. Erskine said it was my heart. I was...a better man then Schmidt had been.”

“Huh.” Bruce looked up from the box. “You know Tony’s going to kill you for this?” He lifted the box slightly.

Steve grinned. “Francis is going to love it.” He exited the elevator and Bruce followed him.

“True.”

****

Tony moved the alert from JARVIS about Steve’s farm hunting to the main screen over top of the nanofabric that was giving him a damn headache. What the hell did Steve want with a farm? “JARVIS, did he say why he wanted a farm?”

“No, sir. He was at the hospital when he asked for the information.”

“Huh.” Tony looked over the satellite imaging from the two farms Steve had visited. “Which one did he stay at longer?”

“The second one, sir. Captain Rogers took several pictures at that location.” 

The pictures appeared up beside the satellite imaging. Tony looked them over. “Buy the second one. Reserve the first just in case.”

Tony bounced up and headed for the kitchen. They’d decided to have dinner together when Steve hadn’t shown for lunch. When he got there, no one was in the kitchen. Tony frowned and followed noise into the lounge next to the kitchen.

Everyone was gathered around a pen on the floor. Tony peeked around Thor’s side and blinked. “Chickens?”

Francis was fascinated. Clint was right there with him. Behind them was Coulson. Steve was pouring feed into a feeder thing. 

Bruce grinned up at him. “Chicks, Tony. They aren’t called chickens until they are adults.”

Francis squealed as one of the chicks stumbled and flapped its little stubby wings. 

Tony shook his head, turned on his heel, and left.

****

Pepper shook her head at the chicks. “Really, Steve?”

He shrugged. “It was an impulse.”

She smiled at him. “Francis seems to like them.”

They watched Francis staring at the chicks for several minutes.

“I need to buy a farm.”

Pepper looked at him. “The chicks don’t require buying a farm, Steve.”

“No.” He pulled out the phone. “I took pictures. I think it’ll work for Tony’s school for the children.” He shrugged. “The ones I visited this morning didn’t know how to play. I want them to have lots of room.”

Pepper took the phone and looked at the pictures. “This is promising.” She smiled at him. “I’ll see to it for you.”

“Thank you, Pepper.”

She smiled widely as he moved forward to sit next to Francis and watch the chicks.

****

Bruce rubbed the swatch of nanofabric. “You still working on this?”

Tony glanced up at him and then back to what he was typing. “I’m...getting there.” He looked at Bruce. “What?”

He raised his eyebrows. “You missed seeing Francis touch an animal for the first time.”

“No, I didn’t.” He pointed to a side screen with his coffee cup. “Chickens are obviously bad for the kid’s health. I swear he hasn’t blinked once.”

Bruce settled on the couch. “He’s afraid they’ll disappear. Clint assured him that you won’t make Steve take them back.”

Tony threw his head back and then rolled his eyes as he shook his head. “I’m not...” He narrowed his eyes. “You can’t make me interact with them.”

“I’m not trying to make you, Tony.” Bruce frowned. “Have you ever had a pet?”

Dum-E sat another coffee cup down beside Tony’s elbow.

“Not so much, no.” Tony patted Dum-E on the joint for his claw-hand. “Just robots.”

“Betty never has either.” He shrugged. “Army brat.”

Tony snorted and pushed himself away from his desk with a foot.

“Tony!” Francis barrelled into the workshop. “You saw the chicks?” Francis clambered up into Tony’s lap. 

Tony froze. “Uh, yeah.” He gave Bruce a look of horror over Francis’ head.

Francis reached out to Tony’s computer and started a new project. “I want to make a feeder robot. There’s one chick that isn’t getting the same amount as the others.” He twisted to look at Tony. “Will you help me?”

Bruce covered his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh as Tony was sucked into robot making.

****

Betty turned completely around. “The whole thing is for me?”

Pepper walked forward and touched a control for the windows. “The whole thing. Tony goes a little overboard. I’m surprised he hasn’t moved everyone else down a floor instead of moving Bruce up one.”

Betty frowned as she stood near the windows. “He made Bruce move?”

“Tony didn’t make him. He asked and Bruce pretty much jumped on it.” Pepper settled on Betty’s couch and started working on her pet project to get Centre’s financials untangled. “Tony bought an entire farm this afternoon on the off chance Steve wanted it. Well, started the process of buying it.”

“And Mr. Stark can just afford to do things like that? I mean I know he’s, well, Stark, but...”

“Petty cash.” Pepper sighed as she closed another dead end file. “Well, that’s what Tony calls it. It is a couple of money market funds. They are easier to move money in and out of on a spur of the moment purchase.”

Betty sat down across from Pepper. “What do I need to do to have my things moved?”

“Oh.” Pepper checked a file. “Your possessions arrive tomorrow afternoon.”

“My whole house?”

Pepper nodded and stood up. “Of course. Your father attempted to have the house declared a crime scene, but we got everything out before he could.”

“Oh, that man.” Betty followed Pepper to the door. “Thank you. And thank Mr. Stark for me.”

Pepper smiled. “I’ll make sure to do that.”

****

Steve smoothed the corner of Hanna’s picture as he pinned it to the wall. “Clint.”

Clint dropped down from his perch. “What’s this?”

“A picture I traded for this morning.”

“One of the kids?”

Steve nodded and put the last pin into the picture. He stood back to admire it. “I traded her a drawing of Iron Man for it. She said her name is Hanna.”

Clint touched the edge of the paper. “She talked?”

“Yes. She was the only one that did, but I got most of them to draw. A few were busy watching a bird.”

With a smile, Clint pulled out his phone and took a picture of the drawing. “So that’s where you got the idea for the chicks.”

Steve ducked his head a little. “Francis liked them.” He sighed. “Tony didn’t though.”

Clint shook his head. “Nah, Stark likes them.”

He gave Clint a weird look.

“Trust me.” Clint tapped the drawing. “Not knowing how to handle something doesn’t mean the person doesn’t like it.” 

For a long time after Clint left the room, Steve gazed at the drawing of him in his Captain America uniform holding a little girl’s hand.

****


	6. An Unexpected Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The movers for Betty's belongings needed to have been bonded. Seriously.

****

Bruce frowned at Tony. “That is the stupidest idea ever.”

“No. Not really.” Tony soldered the next connection on the little feeder robot as Francis watched. “It gives you practice at control and Francis gets to learn not to be afraid of you.”

Francis looked up at them. “I’m not afraid of Bruce.”

Tony smiled at him. “I know. Not exactly what I meant. Here, turn the casing a little that way...There.” Tony touched another wire to fix it in place. “Remember the video Clint showed you of the attack that damaged the city around this tower?”

“Damaged the tower too.” Bruce handed Tony another length of wire.

“I remember seeing the video.” Francis leaned forward to watch Tony solder the next wire. 

“The huge green guy, the Hulk, that was fighting in the video. What did you think of him? And don’t decide what to say based on what you think I want to hear.”

Francis blinked. “Uhm. Okay.” He cocked his head. “He was very big. And...” Francis looked at Bruce then at Tony. “I liked how he punched the one big flying monster in the nose.”

Tony snorted as Bruce dropped his face into his hand. With a flourish, Tony put the soldering iron back on its stand. “Bruce is the Hulk. Sometimes. Most of the time he’s just Bruce.”

Francis looked Bruce up and down. Then he looked at Tony. He slid off the stool he had been sitting on and walked over to Bruce and he lifted Bruce’s hand, spread it out, and looked back to Tony. “Bruce is far too small to be the Hulk. And he’s not green.”

Tony made a smug face at Bruce. “See? Totally needs to met you while you are green.”

Bruce shook his head and sighed. “Not happening.”

“Fine, whatever.” Tony closed up the feeder bot’s case. “Okay. Francis, you want to finish the code for this?”

Francis patted Bruce’s hand and darted back over to Tony.

Bruce left them arguing over which way to prioritize the feeding schedule for the chicks. He started to head down to his lab, but the elevator didn’t arrive as fast as normal. Bruce looked up at the floor indicator to see if it was just the movers holding it open on Betty’s or the gound floor. He frowned. The indicator said four floors below Natasha’s floor.

“That’s weird...” The floor trembled and he heard the distant thump-wham of an explosion. “Oh, shit.” He turned and sprinted for Tony’s workshop.

Tony shoved Francis at him. “Here, take him. I’ve got to get the armor on.”

Francis was wiggling. “The chicks. They’ll take them away and I’ll never get to see them grow up!” 

Bruce pulled Francis in close to him. “They aren’t after the chicks, Francis.” He turned and headed for the service elevator shaft. The floor trembled again and the lights quit. The emergency lighting came on.

Behind him, Bruce could hear Tony’s armor whirring into place. Slapping the biolock, Bruce looked down the shaft. “Okay. Francis, you know how Tony said I am the Hulk sometimes?”

Francis nodded into Bruce’s shoulder. 

“I need to be right now, but the other guy...He’s never met you. I don’t know how that will work out, but I don’t think we have much of a choice right now.”

They could hear gunfire drifting up from below them. Bruce checked the shaft, but there wasn’t anything moving in it. 

“I’m not afraid.” Francis slid down Bruce’s side and he stepped back. “Do it.”

Bruce grimaced and concentrated.

****

Natasha thought they’d made a stupid mistake in trying to disable JARVIS first. He’d been mid-sentence with Coulson over the next food order when he’d stuttered. Coulson had a gun in his hand before the stuttered word had even finished. 

With a snap of her arm, Natasha sent another man to the floor. They were being stupid all around actually. The training wasn’t consistent across the group. She thought a few of them weren’t even trained.

“Hey, Hawkeye, have you gotten anyone that has proper form yet?”

There was a gasp over her comm and then Hawkeye’s voice came through clearly. “Not a damn one.”

Natasha exchanged looks with Coulson as he shot another one. “Something is wrong.”

“Like a bunch of hired goons invading my _home_ isn’t wrong enough, really?” Stark’s voice sounded less stressed than had become normal lately. He was enjoying himself.

“They are cheap hired goons.”

“Well, shit.” Tony’s armor appeared from around a corner. “Pepper said she had tracked some of the money to Africa, but she’d not worked out if what we did in Blue Cove disabled the other end.”

Coulson flipped his phone closed. “I don’t think it did. The hospital isn’t answering.”

Natasha felt like kicking someone in the head. “Hawkeye, did you hear all that?”

“Got it. I’ll get Bruce.”

Tony snapped his faceplate down. “I’ll pick up Cap and get Thor.”

“We’ll meet you there.”

Natasha nodded and followed Coulson.

****

Steve punched the last man as he attempted to attack Thor. Steve thought about just letting him break his arm on Thor’s armor, but it felt better to drop the man himself.

“Cap!”

Iron Man crashed through a window and he batted the body of the man Steve had just punched out of his way. “This is a diversion. They’ve gone after the kids.”

Steve grabbed Tony’s shoulder and stepped up onto the armor’s boots. “Let’s go.”

“You sure? This isn’t the easiest way you could get there.”

“I’m certain.” Steve made sure his sheild wouldn’t be in Tony’s way and nodded.

Tony centered himself and took off. Thor followed them out into the sky.

****

Pepper hit the downed goon with the cast iron frying pan one more time for good measure.

“I’m pretty sure if you hit him again he is going to die.”

Pepper looked up and grinned at Betty as she zip tied the mover-from-hell to the reinforced chair. This had been Bruce’s floor after all. “He’ll wish he died when I’m done with him.” She kicked the guy in the shin. “I broke a heel. Again!”

Betty patted Pepper on the arm. “Maybe we should check on the others?”

“Oh, Francis!” Pepper opened her phone. “Happy? No, we’re fine. Can you check the power supply? Tony’s off hitting people and I need JARVIS’ power back on. They cut both backups and the secondaries to the big arc reactor.”

Betty waited for Pepper to finish and close her phone. “Happy?”

“Happy is his name. He is usually our driver, but he’s been helping with the recovery efforts for the last few weeks.” Pepper flopped down onto the couch. “They had better not have hurt Francis or the chicks.”

Looking around, Betty grinned. “At least they moved everything up here before they attacked.”

Pepper giggled hysterically for a while.

****

Francis craned his neck to try to see Bruce’s face. “You are _huge_.”

Bruce picked him up gently, his whole hand was bigger than Francis’ back. “Friend?”

Francis gasped as they stepped out into the elevator shaft and started dropping. “Yes?”

“Tiny boy.” Bruce held his other hand out and Francis knew what to do with that. He held his own hand back out and they shook, Bruce’s finger and thumb to Francis’ whole hand. “Hulk friend.”

“Hulk. I’m Francis.” Francis squeaked as they landed at the bottom, above them doors started to roll closed just over the Hulk’s head. 

Clint slid down through the closing gap of the blast doors. “Sorry, I’m late. Untrained enemies can be harder to fight. Stupid people that can’t die right.” 

Francis was set down onto his feet. He looked up at Clint, who was shifting his gaze between Francis and the Hulk. “He’s huge.”

With a smile, Clint scooped him up. “He is. Hey, Hulk, can you open your room up? We need to stash Francis and then go to the hospital.”

Francis watched avidly as the Hulk pressed a control on the wall and a door opened. “I thought the power was out.”

“Tony said this runs separately with the controls under the Hulk’s room.” Clint looked down at him. “This is really important, Francis. There’s a human sized one-way door in the bathroom, but other than that there is no way out unless the Big Guy opens the door for us.”

Francis was plucked from Clint’s arms and the Hulk looked at him closely.

“Safe in Hulk’s room.”

Nodding, because he could tell they meant it, Francis blinked as he was settled into a pile of pillows.

The Hulk looked up at a blank screen. “Small birds.”

The screen flared to life with baby hummingbirds.

“Oh, wow.”

Clint crouched down beside him. “I promise we’ll be back soon. Okay?”

Francis grabbed him into a hug. “Just don’t die.”

Hulk wrapped them both into a hug. “Friends.”

****

Captain America dropped the last few feet from Iron Man to the ground. The hospital looked like a warzone. He scrambled up through the gaping hole where the window the kids had been watching the bird at had been.

Steve stepped over scattered pages of drawings and found a body. It was an invader, but they were incapacitated. He blinked and touched the crayon sticking out of the man’s nose. 

Tony flipped his face plate up. “Wow, that has to hurt.”

“You find anything?”

“Other than a shit ton of heat signatures in the walls and the knocked out goons? Nope. Not a thing.” He tilted his head. “How do we tell them they can come out of the air ducts?”

Steve looked around until he found the big return air vent. He crouched down at it and pulled the cover off. The child inside brandished a food tray at him.

“Stay out!” 

Steve gripped the edge of the tray. “Hey. Stop, stop.”

A pair of huge eyes appeared over the top of the tray. And then Hanna burst into tears. “I tried to fight them!” She threw herself forward and Steve caught her up gently, wrapping her in the protection of his shield.

He soothed her and tried not to listen to hard to her babble that she’s pretended to be Captain America. He made sure to get her food tray shield before he took her outside.

****

Tony finally relaxed when they did the third head count and came out with the right amount of kids. Hanna’s age group had been one of the three groups targeted. All the youngest ones. The easiest targets. The tiniest ones had been defended by their nurses, whereas Hanna’s group’s nurses had been overwhelmed.

The few injuries to the hospital staff were relatively minor. None of the kids were physically hurt, but Tony could see a few that weren’t focusing at all. Hanna was still attached to Steve like a limpet and Tony began mentally shifting around the common floor to handle her when she got old enough she wouldn’t want to share the same floor with Coulson and Francis.

****

Coulson picked up a sleeping Francis with careful movements. “Thank you, Hulk.”

The Hulk made a wistful sound and then sat down in the hallway and started to shift. Coulson hitched Francis’ dead weight a little higher as he waited for Banner to get done shifting. It looked like it hurt a lot.

Bruce sighed and stood up. He took a step, staggered, and then caught himself on the wall. “They better not have blown up my bed.”

Coulson smiled and eased himself under Banner’s closer arm. “Two claymores. One two floors down from Natasha, and one on the 12th floor. Three windows, and one chair.”

“The chicks?”

“All accounted for. Alive.” Coulson had checked on them the instant he’d gotten back. By the time they had let the Hulk out of the troop transport, Coulson had been done counting and was back downstairs waiting for the blast doors for the Hulk’s level to get overridden by Stark.

“Oh, that’s good.” Bruce leaned on Coulson a little more with each step. “Did they get any of the children?”

Coulson smiled just a little. “No. Hanna’s group was almost taken, but she _pretended_ to be Captain America and used a food tray for a shield.”

“Oh. Tell me someone got a picture of that.”

“Several pictures. Stark stashes a phone somewhere in the armor.”

Bruce snorted and closed his eyes as they rode the elevator up.

****


	7. Talking about the Centre

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of talking about the Centre and Coulson gets to laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imply a lot about the Centre in this chapter that isn't nice, mostly because the Centre isn't nice at all.

****

Bruce hitched the tattered remains of his pants higher as they stepped out of the elevator. Francis mumbled into Coulson’s shoulder. Coulson soothed a hand down the boy’s back. 

“You are really good with him.”

Coulson glanced over Francis’ head at him. “Thank you.” He turned a little sideways to get into the living room they were using for the brooder for the chicks. “Now that you know the Hulk will protect him it might be easier for you to relax around him.”

Bruce took Francis and eased him down onto the couch with the eat-you-cushions. “You are assuming I’m tense around him in the first place.”

“Body language.”

“Ah.” Bruce knelt down and tapped the feeder to estimate the amount in it. “It isn’t the other guy that worries me so much with Francis. I’m...You’ve read my history in a file somewhere I’m assuming?”

Coulson nodded and settled down at Francis’ feet. “If becoming like your father is what you worry about, you don’t need to.”

Bruce rubbed his hand through his hair. “Really? I learned abusive patterns from a very early age. That affects a person as an adult.” He frowned and edged towards the door. “I just don’t want to hurt him.”

Coulson nodded. “If it would help, know that I would stop you if needed.” He smiled softly. “There won’t be a need, but if there ever were, I would.”

Bruce’s single handed grip on his waistband tightened. “Good. That’s...good to know.”

****

Steve waited around the corner of the hallway until Bruce retreated into the elevator. Then he moved forward and stepped into the room. Coulson was covering Francis with a blanket. “I need a little help.”

Coulson looked up and grinned. “She is very tiny.”

“I just make her look small.” He turned. “I can’t get her hand loose and I’m afraid to wake her.”

Coulson came over to him and reached up to see how Hanna had her hand wrapped in the seam of his uniform. “She said she pretended to be you.”

“Yeah. Clint said that she meant like him or Francis. That she _became_ me. I...I admit that it bothers me.” 

“Is it about the gender difference?” Coulson worked Hanna’s tiny fingers out from under the seam’s fold one by one.

Steve blinked and looked over his shoulder. “Why would you think that?”

“The time you originally come from has far more rigid views on gender roles. Well, on most equality related things. I’m almost hopeful that JARVIS is filtering the internet for you.”

“I think the moon landing surprised me more than anything.” Steve shrugged as Coulson moved Hanna’s arm back over his shoulder. “People as a whole don’t change. What they say to society and therefore what society says back, that changes, but individuals...well, take the Howling Commandos. I didn’t choose them because of their skin color or race or even gender.”

“Alright. Then what bothers you about Hanna?”

“She is more herself than the others.” Steve frowned as they lay Hanna down at the other end of the couch from Francis. “Clint has had time to build his own sense of self. I think he’s a mishmash of a lot of people as well, but...Francis is just not there in a way sometimes.” 

“I’ve seen that, yes.” Coulson thought of the way Francis hadn’t moved anything in his room. None of the toys or jumped on the bed, nothing like a typical child.

“She’s different.” Steve stretched his arm that he’d been holding Hanna with. “She knows her name and had an estimate of her own age. She likes Iron Man. To have her just blank all that out to replace it with _me_ is...horrifying.”

“Most of us know our names. Or at least the name they gave us.” Clint came on into the room and settled beside the border. “Francis had a number because he was a clone. They did the same thing with Jarod’s clones.”

Steve started stripping his gloves off. “This Jarod, was he amongst the ones we got out?

Clint shook his head. “No. He escaped years ago. He is considered by the Centre to be much better than the rest of the Pretenders. Most of the time when they’d say I failed they’d compare me to Jarod.”

Coulson raised his eyebrows. “Is Jarod your age?”

“Older, I think.” Clint turned the waterer a little to the left. “It is hard to tell because the Centre is breeding generations of kids. I’m not actually sure I ever met him.”

Steve swallowed. “Breeding?”

Clint rubbed his ear. “Oh, uh, I don’t suppose anyone showed you in-vitro fertilization information?”

Coulson sighed. “No. There wouldn’t have been any need.”

“Right.” Clint stood up. “Come on into the next room once you’ve changed out of your uniform and we’ll give you a crash course.”

Steve nodded and hurried to shower and change.

****

Tony ran another check to make sure the power outage hadn’t hurt JARVIS. The assholes had thrown the breakers and then jammed them in the off positions. Happy had said it had taken him nearly ten minutes to get them all fixed. “You are sure you are okay?”

“As with the last seven times you have asked, yes, sir.”

“Okay, okay. I just...worry.” Tony looked at the hacks running on the secondary screen. He was almost into the files he needed. “Since you are up and running buy at least three other farms to match Steve’s.”

“Do you wish to have all of the transactions to close at the same time?”

“Closer together the better. Mask my name as much as possible. Put them under at least three different names.”

“Becoming modest, are we, sir?”

Tony snorted. “Once you’ve gotten that started begin checking DNA on the children. Start with the girl-child Steve brought home.”

“What are you looking to find, sir?”

“Something that will make Pepper cry.” He flicked open a video file from where Cleaners held down Clint while they drew blood from him. “Is Barton awake?”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony spun out the hacks and set himself an alert for when the files cracked open like an egg. “Good.”

****

Natasha woke up. “What?”

Clint eased back from the edge of the bed. “Sorry. I couldn’t hear you breathe.”

She squinted her eyes at him. “You know to make you-sounding noise. What is wrong?” She sat up and rolled her head on her neck. “And remember I’ve gotten about two hours sleep.”

He looked worried. “I could come back.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder as he said it.

She swept her leg out and caught him behind the knee. He dropped partway and turned it into a move to sit on the floor. She flopped back down on her side so their heads were almost level. “Just shut up and tell me.”

He started to open his mouth to retort and she pointed at him. He grinned at her and eased himself around so he was leaning sideways against her bed. “Stark talked to me about the Centre.”

“Yeah?” She snaked a hand out and settled her hand on the back of his neck. 

He eased his shoulder down from the hunching up around his ears they’d been headed for. “He thought to test the DNA of the kids.”

“Hanna is yours.”

Clint blinked. “Yeah...I...Wait, how’d you know? I didn’t until he said.” He fluttered his hands around his knees.

“I’ve gone through all the videos with you in them.” She squeezed her hand lightly. “They did things to you that the adults who trained me wouldn’t have even considered.”

He shrugged like it didn’t matter.

She made herself not hit him.

He smiled at her like he knew what she had been thinking of doing. “Fertility clinics that look like they are helping couples, but really are just there to find people to park the child with for the diaper years. I mean, I knew about that, but...” He wrapped his hands around his knees and squeezed. “They made me give them all sorts of bodily fluids for tests. I never once thought they were...”

Natasha pulled his head over to rest on the edge of the bed. “I’m sure Stark has a list of the clinics by now. We’ll burn them all to the ground, alright?”

He snorted and brought up on shaky hand to touch her forearm. “Yeah.” He closed his eyes. “Yeah, that would be good.”

She rubbed her thumb up into his hair until he was limp and snoring. Then she shifted enough to kiss him on the top of his head. “They will pay.”

****

Pepper sat down her fork as she fussed with the information on the screen in the tabletop. Tony had forwarded her the Centre’s recovery plan files at four in the morning. She was going to sic Steve on the man if JARVIS didn’t report Tony has having fallen asleep by nine. 

Coulson sat down across from her and sipped his coffee. “Good morning.”

She smiled at him. “Morning. The kids?”

“Chicks.” He almost smiled. “Hanna is just as entranced as Francis.”

“Tony seems to think Hanna is Clint’s child. I’m trying not to think what all Tony has hacked to get Clint’s DNA information.”

Coulson shrugged. “Stark’s ability to infiltrate SHIELD databases is a training exercise nowadays.”

She snorted as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth. “Oh, no. Really?” She shook her head as he nodded and with a hand motion had another file up in front of them. “Francis ran a mock stock program while I was trying to sort out shell companies. Look at this.” She twisted the relevant file around to show him.

“Well, we won’t have to worry about his college fund.”

“Hah.” She flicked the file away. “He’s just so...young.”

Coulson took another sip of coffee. “They all are.”

****

Bruce woke up to Betty looking down on him. “Uhm. Morning.”

She cocked her head. “Morning sleepyhead. Why are you on my couch?”

He smiled. “Forgot this wasn’t my floor anymore and then was too tired to go on upstairs.”

“Oh, okay.” She backed up and gestured to the boxes around her. “Tony scanned everything and said there aren’t any bugs or scanning devices in anything. What to help me unpack?”

He sat up. “You okay with living here? We can get you your own place.”

“And give up the electronic butler that informs me where you are anytime I ask? No a chance.”

“Yeah, okay.” He looked down at himself. “Uh. I’ll just... go get some clothes that aren’t in tatters.”

Betty giggled. “That would probably be good.”

****

Tony was going through the battle information when it hit him. “JARVIS, did the men that invaded the hospital have any means of transporting the kids out?” He scrambled for the police report files. 

“It appears they did not.”

“Damn it.” Tony started looking at the suit data. He didn’t normally check for what he was thinking about now. “Are any of the children showing illnesses this morning?” He finally found a inventory of the men had been booked as having had. He scanned down it until he found canisters. He opened the detail up. Empty canisters. Shit.

“Not as yet, sir.”

“Keep me posted.” Tony picked up his coffee cup and headed for the common floor. 

He stuck his head into the chickens’ room to find both the kids watching them. Tony went on down the hallway to the kitchen. Steve came from the other direction and they went into the kitchen. 

“We need to talk to Hanna about the invasion.”

Pepper frowned at him. “Tony, she’s been traumatized.”

Coulson held out his hand towards Pepper and she went quiet. “What is the concern, Stark?”

Tony dumped his cold coffee and got new pouring into his cup. “The plan wasn’t to recover the kids.” He took a gulp of the coffee, JARVIS always made it to just the right drinking temperature right out of the spout. “They were trying to infect them with something, the file doesn’t say what.”

Hanna’s tiny hand appeared over the edge of the table and then her head as she pushed herself up into a chair. “Francis said we could maybe have octopus-dogs that aren’t made with octopus.”

Coulson got up. “You can.” He dug into the refrigerator. “Hanna, do you remember there being bad smelling smoke last night? Smoke at all?”

She folded her hands together and glanced at Steve. “They throw a can into the vent that was hissing, but I knocked it back out with my shield. Then it smoked.”

Francis climbed into a chair next to her. “See? I told you he wasn’t a Cleaner.”

She smiled at him. “He knows what an octopus-dog is.”

“It doesn’t have actual octopus.” Francis looked up at the rest of the adults. “Is that something I’m not supposed to know?”

Pepper smiled at him. “Oh, no, honey, that is fine. Most of us just haven’t heard of octopus dogs.”

Francis grinned. “Phil made them and then Clint flicked food at Phil and then Natasha did this...” He flung himself backwards out of the chair to the counter.

“Holy shit. He’s River Tam.”

Hanna frowned and turned to Francis. “I thought you were named Francis.”

He looked at Tony. “I did too. Am I supposed to be River Tam?”

Pepper had to stretch to reach, but she did and she smacked Tony on the arm. “Don’t reference things they haven’t seen.”

Tony made flappy motions with his hands. “How can I not? They haven’t seen...pretty much everything.”

Steve walked around until he could crouch between the children. “Tony didn’t mean your name was different. He meant you reminded him of someone else.”

Francis relaxed and then scrambled off the counter. “Oh. Okay.”

Hanna leaned over onto Steve’s shoulder. “We don’t have to ever have new names, do we?”

Coulson sat down macaroni and cheese topped with octopus-dogs in front of her. “Never, Hanna. We will make sure of that.”

She squealed and started to reach with her fingers before freezing and reaching for a fork. Francis bounced as Coulson sat a plate in front of him.

“Tomorrow we’ll make breakfast foods.”

****

It wasn’t often Coulson came to her for a shoulder to lean on, but Natasha was happy she could be there when he did. She shifted a little more weight into his side, testing to see if it made him wince.

“Stop it.”

She smiled. “Can’t help it.”

He sighed. “They are...so broken.”

“I heard she didn’t scream at your suit and tie.”

Coulson nodded. “Francis had warned her.” He rubbed his hand across his chin. “I should have done something when I first learned about the Centre.”

She pinched the back of his hand. “Stop it. You were a junior agent. They were a global monstrosity.”

“That shouldn’t have stopped me.” He sighed.

“I’ve noticed being outnumbered or outgunned doesn’t faze you.” She frowned. “They killed several people that questioned their methods. One that was getting children out. They shot her in front of the woman’s own daughter.”

“Still.”

She nodded. “I know.” They sat there for a while. “Did Barton sleep in your room last night?”

“Yes. He seems to be rotating through the team.”

“Hmm.” She waited a few moments. “What exactly are we doing with the chicks when they get big enough to be outside?”

He laughed. It was short and turned bitter at the end as he clutched at his chest, but she welcomed it regardless.

****


	8. Not Dead?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coulson has a meeting while the kids try to adjust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have never really liked Agent Hill, but I tried not to let that bleed through into the writing. Well, it might have a bit anyway. :P

****

Clint settled down beside Hanna and Francis to watch the chicks.

Hanna looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “You hurt.”

Francis peeked at him from around the side of Hanna’s head. “Like Tony.”

With a sigh, Clint reached in and picked up one of the chicks. “Hanna, how much do you remember about your parents?”

She reached out to touch the chick in his hand carefully. “Not much.” She looked up at him. “I remember Mom always said they loved me. And just because Dad wasn’t who the doctor place used to make me didn’t mean I was any less theirs.”

Clint nodded. “The Centre used the doctor place, a clinic, to make more Pretenders.”

Francis looked from Hanna to Clint and back. “They made Hanna from your sperm.”

Hanna turned her head to stare at Francis.

Clint grimaced. “They did, yes.” He sat the chick back in the brooder. “I never thought about having children.”

Hanna looked at him and then set her tiny hand on top of his. “I’d like to have a parent again.”

He grabbed her up against his chest. “Okay.” He pulled Francis in from where he was hovering near them. “Okay.”

****

Coulson kept his face bland as another agent gasped and backed away fast. He hadn’t thought to check that his continued existence had been announced to the rest of SHIELD. Another agent’s eyes widened and they dropped the files they were carrying. Phil started to stop and help them pick the files up, but the agent started to hyperventilate, so he backed off and went on. He would have snagged a passing agent to help the one he’d left, but they kept running away.

He came onto the bridge and watched Hill’s face got slack in shock for a bare moment before she was demanding to know where his reports were and why they were late. Phil stepped up beside Fury.

“Dead agents don’t file reports.” He let a bit of smug into his expression as she paled and ducked out of sight around the other side of Fury. He looked over the screen to Fury’s right that showed the repairs in progress to the helicarrier. “Morning, Boss.”

“Agent Coulson.” Fury turned and headed away. “Walk with me.”

He fell in step and they moved through the corridors. Less agents ran away, but more openly stared. Phil fought the urge to straighten his tie. “The Council?”

Fury shut his door behind them and leaned against the edge of his desk. He sighed as he crossed his arms. “They are going to allow the Centre to sue SHIELD for the theft of their property. All internally at the Council's discretion.”

“Property?” Phil jerked his head to the side to try to ease the sudden tension in his neck. “Sir, with all due respect to the Council: Fuck that.”

Fury smiled. “My thought exactly. I have made it clear to the Council that their priorities are not ours.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “The response was not...reassuring.”

“An attempt on the children was made. They were trying to infect them with something.”

Fury frowned. “It could be as simple as the chicken pox. I wouldn’t expect the Centre to have properly inoculated subjects that they never expected to see the light of day.”

“Boss, at least one of the children is Agent Barton’s.” Phil watched Fury still and then he turned towards the desk.

“Make sure Barton files an amended personnel file.”

“I filed it when I arrived.” Phil squared his stance. “Boss, how often has SHIELD utilised the Pretender program?”

“Twice.” Fury sighed and sat down. “Howard Stark went ballistic when he found out about the Centre. It existed before SHIELD and we were kept separate. The Centre was shunted under the Triumvirate to better mask them from us. Want to guess when he found out?”

“Several days to a week before his fatal car accident, Boss?”

“Four days.” Fury leaned back in his chair. “Couldn’t connect the two of course. Howard was quite the drinker by then, so the official story held water easily.” 

Phil pursed his lips. “What were the sims?”

“Sims?”

“Simulations, Boss.”

“Ah.” Fury pushed two files across the desk at Coulson. “One was an attempt to track HYDRA. The other was an attempt to figure out who was behind the kidnapping of Tony Stark, age five.”

Phil nodded. “Conclusions?”

“Nothing useful.” Fury gestured to the files. “Protect our people, Agent.”

Coulson gathered up the files as he nodded. “I would do nothing less, Boss.”

****

Bruce gasped and stared down himself as Francis buried his head against Bruce’s knee. “Uh, hi.”

“You aren’t green now!” Francis held out his arms and Bruce picked him up. Francis grinned at him. “You get lots taller when you change.”

“Uhm.” He adjusted his glasses as Hanna came closer to stare up at him. He looked Francis over carefully. “You weren’t scared of him.”

Francis shrugged. “He is lots less scared now that he has his own room. He showed me hummingbird babies.” Francis patted Bruce on his shoulder. “You shouldn’t be so afraid of him.”

Hanna touched his knee. “Why did you pick Francis up?”

He smiled at her. He adjusted his hold on Francis so he could bend down and pick up Hanna. She gasped and her eyes went wide. Then she smiled and giggled as she tried to figure out where to put her hands.

Francis caught one of her hands and pressed it to Bruce’s shoulder. “Hold here. And wrap your legs around his waist.”

Hanna craned her neck to see what Francis meant. She squeezed her knees into his ribs and Bruce hitched them both a little higher. “Are both of you feeling alright?”

They both nodded. 

Hanna kneaded her hand in the fabric of his shirt. “How do I get other adults to lift me?”

Bruce moved forward and sat both of them on the edge of the counter. “You lift up your arms and hold them out some.” He handed them each a plate. “Don’t be surprised if Tony doesn’t understand what you mean. And Natasha may not be willing to pick you up.”

“She picked me up.” Francis turned his plate clockwise until Hanna started to copy him. “Do you mean she might not always pick us up?”

“Uh, yeah.” Bruce looked them over. “Vegetables?”

Hanna lit up. “Carrots? I like carrots.”

Bruce smiled. “Carrots. Okay.” He moved towards the refrigerator. “What about you Francis?”

“I’ll wait.”

He looked around the edge of the door to watch Francis stare down at his plate. “Well, okay. Do you have a favorite vegetable?” Francis stared at him with the look that Bruce had come to associate with pretending. “No. Francis, pick for yourself.”

“I...don’t know.” Francis shoved the plate from his lap and then started to cry when it shattered on the floor.

“Okay.” Bruce wiggled his bare toes and closed the refrigerator door. “Don’t break a plate next time. You can just say you don’t know.”

Hanna looked over the edge at the mess, then up at Bruce. “You aren’t mad.”

With a shrug, Bruce watched as the robot that cleaned the floors came out and started cleaning up the plate shards. “Should I be?”

She frowned. “Not knowing is bad. Being bad isn’t allowed.”

Bruce moved closer now that the floor was clear. “Francis, Hanna, I know that all of this is scary. That we are expecting things from you both that can be hard to understand.” He touched Francis’ closer knee. “None of us will punish either of you for not knowing something.”

Francis knelt up and grabbed onto Bruce’s shirt. He buried his face in Bruce’s shoulder. “I don’t know what I like. I’m sorry.”

He rubbed Francis’ back. “Shh. It’s okay, Francis. We’ll just try all the vegetables so you can figure out what you like.”

Hanna patted Bruce’s hand on Francis’ back. “We didn’t think you’d hit us.”

Bruce froze. Tony appeared at his shoulder. “Hey, lunch isn’t ready? You are all lazy. Come here, girl child.”

Hanna giggled and launched herself at Tony. “You worry.”

Tony swept her up and deposited her on a chair at the table. “Only a little and not about hitting.” Tony sorted through the fridge as Bruce took Francis to the table. “I want chicken nuggets. Have you two had those before?”

Bruce took a deep breath as the kids shook their heads. 

Tony beamed at them. “Oh, you’ll like them. You eat them with your fingers.” He wiggled his fingers at them and Francis gave a watery smile in return.

Natasha breezed in. “Is Coulson back yet?”

Bruce sat down next to Francis and let him climb into his lap. “I have no idea.”

“He is on his way back. Should be here in time to eat.” Clint settled at the end of the table and rolled a ball to Hanna. “Here. Bouncy ball.”

She caught and looked it over. “It sparkles.”

Francis caught the next ball. “Swirls, neat.” He looked at Clint. “Bouncy?”

Clint mimed bouncing it. “Try it. Small bounce.”

Hanna bounced hers and laughed. She held it down to stop the bouncing. “What lesson is this for?”

Bruce exchanged looks with Tony. Natasha looked at Clint who smiled softly.

“No lesson.” Clint gestured to everyone. “It unnerves people if you don’t play. Children play. You both have the urge to before your training makes you stifle it. So, no lesson, but...I would like you to bounce your ball each time you have the urge to play. Go a bounce pass comfortable and then follow your training.”

The confusion on Francis’ face cleared. “Oh.”

Hanna frowned and turned towards him. “What?”

“Our training breaks down if we disobey it enough.”

“Oh!” Hanna grinned and bounced her ball. “Is chicken nuggets breaking our training? Tony says we eat them with our fingers.”

Natasha caught Hanna’s ball out of the air and rolled it back across the table to Hanna. “You can eat them with utensils if you want. They are easier to dip when you use your fingers.”

Bruce gently pulled Francis’ ball from his hand and bounced it gently. Francis giggled as he caught it.

“Dip?” Hanna bounced the ball to Natasha, who bounced it to Clint. Tony batted Francis’ ball into a roll from Bruce lobbing it at him.

Steve leaned against the counter. “Dip?”

“For the chicken nuggets.”

Steve glanced around at them. “What is a chicken nugget?”

Coulson dropped a couple of files on the kitchen counter as he moved across the room to get himself down a coffee cup. “Chicken nuggets are small pieces of chicken that are breaded and fried. They are usually eaten with sauce that the nugget is dipped into.”

Bruce watched as Coulson tipped Francis’ face up and then carefully wiped at the remains of the tear trails. 

Thor came in with a chick in his hand. “The chicks are much bigger today.”

With a laugh, Bruce got up to rescue the chick from Thor and give himself a minute alone to just breathe as he put the chick back.

****

Tony frowned at the latest test results for the children. No one was showing symptoms yet, but depending on what they’d been exposed to it could be ten days yet. He rubbed his hand across his face and blinked when he found Francis standing by the edge of the desk staring at him.

“Hey.”

Francis climbed into a chair. “Hello.” He patted Dum-E, who had come over to investigate. “How do I make Bruce feel better?”

“What?”

“I upset him.” Francis frowned and made a push motion with his hand. “I broke a plate because I was scared and trying to distract him. It made him really mad at himself.” He looked up at Tony. “How do I fix it?”

“Oh. Uh.” Tony shut down the screen in front of himself. “Did you ever run simulations where the person was bad because their parent had hurt them a lot when they were little?”

Francis nodded. “Serial killers sometimes.”

Tony wrinkled his nose. “Okay, yeah. Well, see...Now I’ve not told Bruce I know about this, but when the Army wanted SI tech...Nevermind that.” Tony sighed. “Bruce’s father wasn’t nice to Bruce.”

“Oh.” Francis patted Tony’s hand. “He didn’t hurt me.”

“No, he just worries that he will.” Tony rubbed his hand across his chin. “We all worry that we’ll hurt you without meaning to.” He narrowed his eyes at Francis. “You can’t tell anyone I said that though. It’ll ruin my uncaring reputation.”

In the vent above the corner perch, Clint smiled as Francis asked another question.

****

Hanna frowned at everyone asleep around her expect Thor. “Why did they insist we watch a movie if they are all going to sleep through the end?” She held out her arms to test the pick up posture.

Thor gently plucked her out of the middle of the pile and carried her as he went into the next room with the chicks. “It appears to be a Midgardian tradition.”

She watched the chicks sleepily peeping. “You are happy and sad all together. Is that normal for you?”

He adjusted her against his chest. “No. I have lost a family member. A brother. And I have come to decide I will not regain him as I had hoped.”

“What happened?”

Thor began to sway back and forth slightly. “If I tell you the story of my brother, will you tell me the story of Lady Hanna?”

She yawned. “Okay.”

He rambled about his childhood with Loki until she started to warm in the way of sleeping Midgardian children. Then he carefully placed her into the nest of blankets, pillows, and his sleeping friends. 

Thor settled against the edge of the group and guarded their slumber.

****


	9. Tony in a Meeting? Oh, Dear.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids are getting sick. And Tony attends a meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm shortening up the incubation timing on the illness. Don't follow a fanfic for how to treat something medically. Okay? Okay.
> 
> For anyone worried about the kids dying: They'll be fine in the end. I'm giving the characters enough angst and misery as it is.

****

“You were right. It is armor.”

Phil tried not to smile at Hanna’s high pitched voice as she whispered to Francis. He pushed the sleeves of his workout shirt up to his elbows.

Natasha caught her hair back into a ponytail. “What do you mean armor, Hanna?”

Hanna looked up from where she was pulling off her shoes, her bouncy ball trapped under one knee. “Phil’s suit is his armor. Francis said so. He’s all...” She waved a tiny hand in his direction. “Softer now.”

Francis looked at her out of the corner of his eye and then turned his head to look at Phil. “She doesn’t mean that in a bad way.”

Phil did smile then. “I know.” He lifted Hanna when she put her arms up, because he had agreed with the rest of the adults that reinforcing anything the kids choose or wanted for themselves was very important. He sat her down on the mats. “Remember what I said?”

She nodded and rolled her ball between her palms. “Don’t make sharp noises. Don’t go inside of the square.” She pointed to the square in front of them. “And no using what I learn unless I’m practicing or it is an emergency.”

Francis settled beside her and Phil nodded at them both.

He moved out to the middle of the square and waited for Nat to finish kicking off her shoes.

Steve settled behind the kids. “You know I wasn’t ever given lessons in hand-to-hand combat beyond a small amount in training and actual fighting. Do you mind if I watch as well?”

Phil shrugged. He knew he was going to go down. It was just a matter of how fast.

Natasha grinned at them. “Sure, Cap.” She moved in and Phil tensed up, ready for the first attack.

****

Clint adjusted his quiver’s strap and started again. He tried to let his mind clear until it was just his target and the arrow he wanted in it, but it wasn’t working. Oh, he was hitting the targets. It just wasn’t bringing him the normal peace it usually did. He let his arms drop with a sigh.

“Perhaps a poptart will bring you a measure of happiness, my friend.”

Clint turned and accepted the poptart from Thor. It was cooling fast, so Clint broke it open and handed back half of it. “I don’t think poptarts can fix this one, buddy.”

Thor set down on the low wall that separated them from the range itself. “Perhaps not.” He cocked his head. “What is worrying you so?” He ate the poptart half in one bite.

He packed away his bow as he chewed. He swallowed and dropped to sit next to Thor. “I suddenly have a kid. Well, two. And what the hell do I know about raising children? I’m not even certain I’m a person most of the time, you know?”

Thor took an arrow from the handful Clint had set on the low wall. “No parent feels secure in their ability to rear their children.” He turned the arrow so the point tapped the floor between them. “Only you can find worth in yourself.” Thor held out the arrow to Clint. “Should it help, I believe you are more than the arrows you launch.”

Clint took the arrow. “Thanks.” He frowned. “Why do you go visit Foster instead of asking her to come here?”

“My Jane is busy with her research.” Thor looked wistful. “If travel between this realm and Asgard is to be restored, Jane’s research must be completed.”

Clint nodded. “I thought your people could rebuild the Biforst.”

“They will.” Thor stood and offered his hand to Clint. “It will take time. As with all things.”

Clint let Thor pull him upright. “You’re right. Let’s find more poptarts. They do bring happiness.”

Thor laughed and clapped Clint on the shoulder. It stung like hell, but at least Thor seemed lighter as they headed for the kitchen.

****

Bruce frowned as he caught the fabric Tony tossed at him. “What is this?”

“Just try it on and see if it fits.”

“Tony.” 

“What? Is it the purple? Betty said it was your favorite color, but then she smirked so I probably shouldn’t have listened to her.” Tony touched a control on his screen. “Seriously, Bruce. Try it.”

Bruce grumbled as he changed into the purple pants. “Well?”

Tony grinned and turned a screen more towards Bruce. “See? It should stretch and shrink with your changes. And it’ll keep you warm. Right, you’re warm enough right now?”

He looked down at his bare knees. He was warmer than he would have expected. “Still purple.”

Tony laughed. “Purple looks good with green.” With a wink, Tony slapped him on the shoulder. “It isn’t like you need to be manlier while you are green.”

Bruce huffed. He pulled on the lower hem of one leg and smiled as it stretched. He let it go and it returned to being snug to his leg. “Can it handle fighting?”

“Not really sure.” Tony shrugged. “We’ll keep carrying spare clothes. I designed them to wear all day, under normal clothes, so if it starts to itch or bunch wrong...Well, I’ll just send you the file and you can make adjustments.”

“Tony.”

Tony looked up from his screen. Bruce caught him up into a hug. Tony sucked in a breath and stood still.

“Thank you, Tony.”

“Oh.” Tony blinked and brought up a hand to pat Bruce on the back. “You...you’re welcome.”

****

Thor picked up Hanna as she held her arms up for him to do so. “Will you tell me the story of Lady Hanna?”

She pushed the ball that bounces against his chest. “I said I would.” She cocked her head. “Unless you just said that so you could talk until I had gone to sleep?”

He smiled. “I wish to hear your story.” He carried her to the couch in the room that held the growing chicks. He sat them down. “I am ready to listen.”

She giggled, scooted to the edge of the couch, and bounced her ball. “I was smart. That’s why I thought they picked me. I could figure things out real fast.” She looked up at him.

Thor nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear.

She blinked and continued her story.

****

Bruce looked down as Francis tugged on his elbow. “Hey, you okay?”

Francis put his bouncy ball up on the table and rolled it around between his hands. “I’m...okay. I just...” He abandoned his ball and buried his head in Bruce’s side. “Please don’t make me go back because I upset you.”

“Oh.” Bruce twisted and pulled Francis up into his lap. “Oh, Francis.” He gathered the boy to his chest. “I’m not making you go back. Ever.” He grabbed up the bouncy ball and headed for the chicks’ room. 

He only paused for a moment when Bruce saw Thor soothing a sobbing Hanna. He sat down next to Hanna’s feet. “Trade with me?”

Thor took Francis from him and Bruce turned Hanna around so she was crying into his thigh. Natasha appeared and frowned at them both before producing a brush she handed to him and a comb she gave to Thor.

Bruce gently brushed the hair back off Hanna’s face. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Thor carefully combing Francis’ hair. Hanna tucked her bouncy ball tighter to her chest. 

“I really wish Clint had hooked you two on a plush toy instead.” Bruce made another pass with the brush.

Natasha glowered at him. “Her holding a teddy bear would just make you want to cry harder.”

Tony appeared. “JARVIS says Hanna’s temperature is raising.”

Bruce felt her forehead even though he knew it wasn’t a good way to tell if she had a fever. Tony knelt down in front of them.

“Hey, kiddo.” He touched Hanna’s chin. “I’m going to stick this in your ear for a second. It’ll beep. Okay?”

Hanna whimpered and nodded before turning to put her face against Bruce’s leg.

Tony was gentle and quick. He frowned at the reading. “Crap.” Natasha snatched the thermometer from him. Tony smiled at Hanna. “It’ll be fine. You’ll be okay.”

Bruce kicked him lightly to keep him from starting to babble. “We should put them to bed.”

Francis thrashed and grabbed at Thor. “No! I don’t want to be left alone.”

Hanna’s hand tightened in his pants. “Stay with you.”

Bruce rubbed her back. “I just thought you’d be more comfortable in your bed is all, Hanna.”

She scratched at her ribs. “Not alone?”

Natasha disappeared.

Tony patted both of the children’s ankles. “No, kiddo, not alone.” He looked at Bruce “We could just bed them down in the movie room.”

Bruce nodded. Keeping an adult with them would be easier if they were in one place. “Any idea what it is and if we’re going to get it too?”

Tony shrugged. “Not yet.” He picked up Hanna.

Bruce grabbed up Francis’ bouncy ball and helped disentangle Francis from Thor enough that Thor could stand. They moved the children into the other room.

****

Clint watched Coulson stretch. “You hurt yourself sparing with Nat?”

“No.” Coulson winced as he put weight on his arms to move into the plank position.

“Want to rephrase that, sir?”

“No.” Coulson flopped over onto his side and looked over his shoulder at Clint. “Be quiet.”

Clint covered his mouth and laughed a little more. “Sorry.”

“Uh huh.” Coulson sat up and rubbed at his chest. “Damn it.”

Clint moved in and pressed the heel of his hand to Coulson’s back. “Here.” He worked on the scar where the normal skin hit scar tissue. “Feels pretty even.”

“The medics did some emergency stitches before they declared me dead.”

“Ah. No wonder.” Clint looked up as Nat came into the room. She bowled him over and sat on him. Clint was moderately used to this sort of thing from her. “Yes?”

“What happened when you would get sick?”

Clint flinched. Then he tensed. “They are starting to feel bad? That’s fast.”

She punched him in the pectoral muscle. “Do not avoid the question.”

“Okay, sorry.” He looked at Coulson watching him. “I was left alone to get better.”

She backed off. “No one watched you.”

He sat up and shrugged. “Why would they? I’d either get better or die.”

Coulson made a sound of rage and stomped off. 

Clint blinked. “What did I say wrong?”

Natasha ran her fingers through his hair. “Nothing. Come on.”

He followed her to the movie room. They’d gotten the kids laid down and _The Lion King_ was playing softly. He touched each of them in turn. Hanna was hotter. She whimpered and flopped her arm out of the blanket. He ignored Nat whispering to each of the adults in turn and climbed in between the kids.

****

Coulson pulled up the location files and started mapping them out. JARVIS gave him helpful information on which ones appeared to be shut down. That started, Phil filled out all the forms to countersue the Centre through the Council’s internal systems. Then he filled out more forms to secure children’s benefits through SHIELD.

“Francis wants you.”

He looked up at Natasha standing in the doorway. “Me?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you.”

“Uh.” Phil digitally signed his name to another form. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

“Good.”

He glanced up as he shut off the screen, but she’d already disappeared. Phil stopped in the kitchen for two of the fruit juice popsicles in the plastic tubes. He cut off the top ends and took them with him to the movie room, where he figured everyone would have gathered.

He handed Bruce one of the tubes for Hanna and then sat down next to a miserable looking Francis. “Here you go.” Francis blinked at the popsicle like he’d never seen one. Which, Phil realized he probably never had. He nudged the bottom to get the ice up out of the tube. “You suck on the ice.”

“Oh.” Francis took it from him and tried it. “Oh, neat.”

Hanna made a hand motion that Phil recognized as ‘thank you’ in ASL.

“You are welcome, Hanna.” Phil held still as Francis wiggled around until his head was against Phil’s hip. He managed not to flinch as Stark suddenly stuck a cold thermometer into his ear. “Stark, I can still tase you.”

Tony smiled, checked the screen, and then ran an alcohol swab over the tip. “We’re all exposed, so might as well get used to it.”

“Hmm.” Phil couldn’t really argue with that. He watched Francis slip his hand into Clint’s limp one. “When did he fall asleep?”

Natasha handed him another popsicle. He didn’t comment that it looked like she’d opened it with a knife.

“About the time his head hit a pillow.” Bruce smiled shyly as he took a popsicle from Nat. “He slept in my lab for a couple of hours this morning.”

Tony took a popsicle with a leer. Natasha stomped on his foot and then grinned when he yelped. “Dum-E tried to lift a blanket into the air duct this afternoon, so I’m going to assume that wasn’t Agent Romanoff.”

Natasha flipped him off from where she’s settled next to Thor, who was eyeing his popsicle like it would attack at any moment.

Bruce chewed a bit of ice. “As long as he is sleeping.”

They all nodded at that.

****

Betty hefted Hanna as she cried pitifully. “She’s not getting hotter?”

Bruce carried Francis into the huge bathroom. “No, neither of them are, but she’s starting to scratch at her ribs more.”

“Maybe chicken pox, then?” Betty eased Hanna down onto the edge of the tub. “Why are we the ones doing this?”

“Uhm.” Bruce sat Francis down and helped hold Hanna while Betty worked off her clothing. “It might be because they don’t want me at the hearing about the Centre and SHIELD suing each other over the children.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” She lifted Hanna into the water. “Honey, I need you to put your head on the edge of the tub. Just for a minute.”

Francis fought them, so Bruce finally just put him in the tub clothing and all.

“Oh.” Francis’ eyes came open. “Sorry.”

Bruce touched his sweaty hair. “Its okay, Francis.”

Hanna rolled on her side and Betty held her head up out of the water. “You are good. I like you.” She patted Bruce’s forearm. “You need more hugs.”

Betty looked at Bruce. He gave her a wan smile. Then he put his hand on top of Hanna’s. “Thank you for that, Hanna. Stop pretending me now, okay?”

She whimpered and closed her eyes. “Can’t.”

“Okay. Don’t worry about it.” 

They got them washed, dried off, and put into clean clothing. Hanna clung to him. Betty managed to pry her away long enough for Bruce to get his phone out of his pocket to text Tony.

****

Tony reined himself in during the meeting in a way he wouldn't have if it had been a Board of Directors meeting. He was quiet about his hacking, making sure not to let anyone know what he was doing. Steve was giving him little looks every once in awhile, but Tony ignored that as much as he could.

Coulson was laying out another point of the Charter, whatever that was, and how it sided with the Avengers on the person status of the children.

Tony got a text so he opened it. It was from Bruce saying he knew why pretenders were left alone while they were sick. Tony thought about it. He glanced at Clint who looked ready to fall over. Tony texted back that it could be worse, Tony could be with the kids instead of Bruce.

The hack into the Council’s network completed and he sent pictures of the ones arguing non-person status for the children to the rest of the Avengers. Then he stood up.

Everyone went quiet slowly. 

He drew his mouth to one side as he cocked his head. “I’m done playing nice guy.” He hit the button to virus smash the Council right down into the Triumvirate. “You are responsible for the people that made those _children_ suffer _my_ kidnapping. That is plenty enough reason for me to kill you all. Luckily for you, Captain America leads the Avengers. So.” He smiled. “We’re just going to dismantle your organization instead.” He hit the activate button for his second virus and watched smugly as all the screens blanked out.

“Tony.” Steve didn’t sound all that mad at him.

“Cap.” He turned and looked at Fury. “We’re busy. Don’t call us unless it is the end of the world.”

Fury smiled. 

Tony took that for a nod of approval, not that he needed one. He gathered up his teammates and grabbed Coulson by the arm to make sure he came along. The rest of the helicarrier still fled from the man, which suited Tony’s mood just fine.

When he got a text telling him he wasn’t funny and when were they getting back, Tony was able to answer without breaking his phone. He looked over the rest of them. Clint was sleep on Coulson’s shoulder. Steve was silent in the co-pilot seat while Natasha piloted. Thor was leaning back against the wall of the quinjet with that look he got when he wasn’t the one doing the flying.

Tony nodded at Clint. “When he gets sick what does he normally do?”

Coulson raised an eyebrow at him. “He retreats into one of his nests.”

“Basically he hides alone until it is over?”

“Yes.” Coulson glanced down at Clint’s head. “The one time I pried him out of his nest he was delirious for two days.”

“You think he was delirious or unable to keep from pretending?”

Coulson blinked and looked thoughtful. 

****

Bruce handed Tony a clingy Hanna the instant he got into the room. “How did it go?”

Tony frowned as Hanna started mumbling equations under her breathe. “Fine.”

Natasha pushed Hanna’s hair back from her face. “If ‘fine’ is Stark hacking a supposedly unhackable network and acquiring video of members of the Council and then texting stills of them to the rest of us? Yes, it went fine.”

Tony stuck his tongue out at her as she went to check Francis, who was weighing down Betty. He smiled as Bruce. “I think I impressed them.”

“If by ‘impressed’ you mean monumentally pissed off, yes, you did.” Coulson eased Clint down into the nest of blankets by Bruce. Clint grunted and shivered. 

Steve spread a blanket across Clint. “Have we figured out what they have yet? It looks like measles.” Everyone turned their heads towards Steve. He looked at them and ducked his head. “Sorry.”

“No.” Tony checked the various test results that were ready. All negative. “Another hour before we know for sure. You think it is measles?”

Steve shrugged. “Looks like it so far. They don’t have the rash yet, but that’s just a matter of time.” He pointed to Hanna. “She’s scratching her ribs, not her belly.” He touched Francis’ jaw. “They aren’t swelling up, so it isn’t mumps.”

Tony didn’t question it. He wasn’t the one from a time before vaccines. “Is that good or bad?”

“What?” Steve looked at him. “You never had measles?”

“Oh.” Right, before vaccines. Tony pulled up a wiki for vaccines. “In the sixties they started vaccinating for it.” He handed the tablet to Steve.

“Oh, wow.” Steve paged through the wiki. “No more smallpox? That’s swell.” He paused and looked up at them. “Wait. Why would they infect them with measles? It normally doesn’t kill the child.”

Tony took the tablet back and started hunting through the files he’d gotten to try to see why. The rest of the team, the awake ones at least, started arguing over his head.

****


	10. Never ask a Pretender to do your Evil for you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The report is in on the virus. Natasha gets to threaten Tony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so. This is the chapter where we found out what they have and a bit of why. I am not a virologist. And I have no idea how hard it would be to do what I'm attributing to Clint. See the end notes for more information.

****

Steve woke up with a start. He blinked and rubbed his eyes as he sat up. He extracted himself from the pile that the team had become around the kids as they slept. He tugged the blanket away from Hanna’s back and hitched up her shirt. He frowned at the rash. It was bigger and already more developed than he’d have expected. 

Hanna whimpered and rolled over. She held her arms up at him. Steve hushed her as he picked her up. She was hot, but not hotter than he thought she’d been before. He tucked her against his side and padded into the kitchen. 

“Ice thing.”

He nodded. “Yeah, you can have another ice thing. Just a second.” He hunted down the box of ice things, ah, ice pops, it said and he pulled out the grape color. It reminded him of Grapette. The modern version of grape soda didn’t have the same kick. He frowned at the end of the tube where it was fused shut. “No wonder Natasha opened it with a knife.”

He turned and started to look for the kitchen shears. Thor appeared in the doorway looking like he was only half-awake. Steve grimaced and hitched Hanna up to sit on the edge of the counter. “Did we wake you?”

Thor shook his head and pulled open a drawer. He fished in it and came up with scissors. “You did not.” He lifted the edge of Hanna’s shirt as Steve fussed with the ice pop. “This is progressing faster than expected?”

“Yes, faster than I remember.” Steve gave the newly opened ice pop to Hanna who sleepily sucked on the ice. “She’s not as bad off as I remember people having gotten.”

Thor cocked his head. “As you once did.”

Steve blinked. “Yeah.” He let Hanna lean so her forehead was against his chest as she ate. “Before all this...” He waved down his body. “I was frail.”

“In body only.” Thor pulled another ice pop from the freezer. “In mind you are strong and hail.”

“Uhm.”

Coulson appeared carrying Francis. “He means you were always smart.” Coulson sat Francis next to Hanna and Steve found himself propping up both children in nothing flat. “Thanks, Thor.”

Thor saluted him with his ice pop. Coulson made himself a cup of coffee and then another he handed to Steve. Coulson glanced at Thor, who nodded. Another cup was made and sat in next to Thor.

Coulson pushed himself up onto the end of the table and wrapped his hands around his cup as he kicked his feet a little. “Francis has a rash now.”

“So does Hanna.” Steve wrapped an arm loosely around the kids as they rested against him. “This isn’t right for all of the forms of measles I know.”

Coulson nodded.

****

Tony groaned as JARVIS said his name again in that one tone that meant ‘you told me to tell you now wake up so I can’. “Bruce.”

Bruce grunted and rolled onto his side. “What?”

“JARVIS is talking virus results. Deal with him.”

“Tony...Before sunrise, JARVIS is your AI.”

Tony listened to Bruce flop over onto his stomach before he smiled. “Tell me again, JARVIS. I wasn’t listening before.”

“That was painfully obvious, sir. The test results are complete.” There was a beep and Tony’s tablet came to life.

He angled it so it didn’t blind him and started to read. “Uh. I’ve seen this before.” He waved his hand before JARVIS could protest. “No, no. Something like this. This, but not this.” Tony struggled to sit up and flapped his hand at Natasha frowning at him. He looked around, but Clint was out cold and the kids weren’t in the room. “Huh.”

Tony worked his way out of the body sucking pile of pillows and stumbled into the kitchen. He raised his eyebrows at Coulson swinging his legs like a child and handed the man the tablet as Tony went passed on his way to coffee. 

He drank a cup down and then another half cup before he snatched the tablet back from an amused Coulson. 

He looked the results over again. “I know I’ve seen this.” He tapped a control and pulled up the index of Centre footage. He scrolled through until he found the tag for virologist. He opened that and sorted through the files until he found the one he thought he wanted. He opened it up. 

In the footage Clint was handing a vial to the man that consistently oversaw him.

“This is the perfected carrier virus.” 

And there it was projected over Clint’s shoulder. Tony froze frame and split the screen to show him the two viruses side-by-side. It looked the same overall, but there was more on the one in the video than the one JARVIS had reported on.

Tony rubbed his face. He walked back into the other room and poked Clint until he groaned as he roused up. 

“I need you to look at this and tell me what the difference is.”

Clint glared at him. “Tired.”

“Don’t care.” Tony shoved his shoulder under Clint’s arm, got him upright, and stirred him into the kitchen. Steve was still propping up the children. Coulson and Thor had moved to chairs. “Here, sit.”

Clint slumped down beside Coulson and covered his eyes with his hand. “It is fucking bright in here, Stark.”

It wasn’t bright at all. Tony handed Steve a kitchen towel to shade the kids with in case they just weren’t saying anything because they were eating popsicles. He threw another towel to Coulson, who spread it over Clint’s head. Tony slid a cup of coffee across the table as he sat down.

“Here. Tell me how important the difference in these.”

Clint squinted at the tablet and then his eyes widened. He leaned forward. Clint brought his hand up to cover his mouth and he started to laugh.

Tony exchanged looks with Steve and then with Coulson. Thor shifted in his seat so he was closer to Clint.

“Shield Brother, how is this funny?”

Clint shook his head and grinned as he pushed the tablet back across to Tony. “The idiots.” He tapped the screen and pulled up the report. “They wanted something that would carry Ebola, but wouldn’t be detected as that.” He closed his eyes and leaned forward on his elbows. “They never checked it. I’m telling you: idiots.”

“Why?”

Clint smiled with his eyes closed. “I didn’t do it. I told them I did and I gave them a vial of virus.” He sipped his coffee. “I tricked them.”

Coulson eased Clint over until he was leaning against Coulson. “Tricked them how, Barton?”

Clint smiled. “I shorted the life of the carrier virus. Faster to come up, less severe, faster to die. And I didn’t splice in anything. I just made it look like I had.” He laughed again. “Measles that lasts about two days. Not the apocalypse they were looking for.”

****

It was midmorning as, Tony leaned against the kitchen counter and watched Bruce make himself a cup of coffee. “They were going to infect most of the third world with Ebola. The fuckers thought they’d just sweep in with a cure that they beat out of Clint.”

Bruce gulped down his cup and then got himself water. “I take we all aren’t going to die, though.”

“Nope.” Tony glanced at the toaster as the poptarts popped up. “You’d think the corporations would learn from watching zombie movies, but noooo.”

Steve raised an eyebrow from where he’d moved to the table. “Is this like _White Zombie_?”

Bruce turned his head towards Steve. “Like what?”

Tony shook his head. “Not really.” He looked at Bruce. “He’s talking about a Bela Lugosi film.”

“Oh.” Bruce accepted a poptart from Thor. “So, we’re sure what the kids have is this sudden onset form that Clint made?”

“Our shield brother showed the Helpful Voice, JARVIS, the identifying marks to look for.”

Tony filled his coffee cup again. “Yep.” Tony’s tablet beeped and he checked the virus that was moving all the Centre allocated funds into shell companies for distribution to the children and the Avengers’ charities for rebuilding impromptu to battlefields. “And it looks like only seven of the children in the hospital even became sick. Hanna’s batting the canister out of the air duct saved most of the ones behind her from exposure.”

Steve muttered he was going to feed the chicks and he wandered out of the kitchen.

Thor put more poptarts into the toaster. “They will also recover?”

“Looks like it.” Tony checked the reports. “Hanna’s rash is starting to fade.”

Natasha appeared and took his coffee away from him. “Which is a sign you’ve been awake too long.” She took Thor by the elbow. “You will lead by example and you will go collect Steve from feeding the chicks, taking Stark along because he needs to work on building up the amount of time he spends with the chicks.” She smiled at Tony as she pushed Thor into him.

“Hey.” Tony stepped back. “This is an assault on my person, Agent Romanoff.”

She smiled. “And once you’ve collected Cap you will all go to sleep.” She made shooing motions at Thor, who nodded seriously. “If you are not all asleep in fifteen minutes I will render each of you unconscious.” She smiled sweetly as Tony started to open his mouth. “And draw on you with Sharpies while you are out.”

Tony snapped his mouth shut. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Uh, how about we, Thor and me, go get Cap and we’ll go lay down with the sick people.”

Bruce waited until the door shut before he laughed. “You terrify him.”

She glanced at him and then at the door. “No, not really. Stark just knows I would do what I said. And he doesn’t want a Sharpie penis across his cheek.” 

Bruce almost spit out his coffee.

She slid into a chair across from him. “Could you tell if Barton is right?”

“I looked it all over when Tony kicked me awake earlier.” He made a gesture at the tablet between them. “The Centre didn’t check Clint’s work? That seemed odd to me.”

“I found that odd as well.” Natasha wrinkled her nose. “They did check it. Every pretender that ran the simulation agreed with Clint.” She shrugged. “The ones that actually did it. Several just wouldn’t run the sim at all.”

Bruce sighed. “Tony is gleefully ripping apart the electronic lives of a number of people today.”

“Well, deserved.” She tapped the screen of the tablet. “Want to help me map fertility clinics to burn down?”

He smiled. “It would be a pleasure.”

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The two viruses aren't closely related, but considering that the nasty one can replicate with only a small amount of the genetic material, frankly I hope it can't be spliced into another virus. 
> 
> How the characters feel with measles is based on secondhand knowledge. I asked my Father, who had them, and saw all his siblings have them. He also had mumps and chicken pox by the time he was 20. One sibling of his had smallpox. This was all in the 1930 and 1940's. Yes, he was older when he had me (he was just turning 50).


	11. Rhodey says Hi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey arrives to ask if Tony is behind the stock market meltdown that's happening in result to that creative hacking of Tony's last chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No update last night due to the thunderstorms coupled with AO3's 502 errors. Almost didn't happen tonight either, but the storm blew over. :D
> 
> I have issues with how, in the movies, James Rhodes would cut Tony off and then shut him down without even finding out what Tony was trying to say. It bothered me a lot. I always wanted someone to point out to Rhodey what he was doing. So, I sort of had Thor talk to him. I'm not trying to bash the character because Rhodey puts up with a lot of shit from Tony too.

****

Pepper was used to waking up to havoc caused by Tony. In the weeks following the Avengers’ first battle she’d enjoyed the near peace of Tony-less news cycles. She flipped the channel and frowned. The chaos of the morning stock markets was spreading to the pundits and it was getting ugly fast.

She flipped open her phone and dialed. “Rhodey?”

“Hey. What did Tony do this time?”

She turned from the TV and started looking for her most comfortable heels that she could stomp in. “I don’t know that he did.”

“Five high power individuals have disappeared from their homes overnight and the stock market is doing insane things this morning. Sure, Tony didn’t do a thing.”

She rolled her eyes. “Could you talk to him? If I’m going to have to field a media nightmare this afternoon I want a little heads up. He’s still in Stark Tower.”

“Alright.” Rhodey sounded resigned.

“Oh, and don’t be surprised by the baby chicks.”

“The what?”

She ended the call with a smile.

****

Tony looked down at Hanna holding her arms up with her bouncy ball in one hand. “And what exactly is wrong with your legs?”

She wiggled the fingers of her free hand. “This is the pick up posture. You are supposed to lift me up and put me on your hip.”

He leaned over. “I know what it is. Why should I?”

“Oh.” She frowned. “Bruce said you might not know what I meant, but he didn’t say you’d be stubborn about it.”

Tony eyed her. “Stubborn? I’m not the one not answering questions posed to her.” He lifted Hanna up and put her on his hip. “Don’t bounce the ball at anything. We don’t want to explode this morning.”

“Okay.”

“Feeling better, then?” Tony hitched her into the proper spot on his hip so she could cling and he could have both hands free.

She hummed and tucked her bouncy ball into her shirt before clinging to him. “I’m tired.”

“I noticed, since you can’t seem to walk for yourself.” Tony flicked his hologram of his next armor up in front of himself and started to tinker. “Itching?”

“Hmm.” Hanna yawned. “Not much now.”

“Uh huh.” Tony swayed a little as he started to rearrange his munitions so he could fit in a compartment for an extra pair of pants for Bruce. He tucked one arm under Hanna’s butt as she fell asleep so he wouldn’t have to stop to put her on the couch.

He heard his door open, but he was at a fiddly part with only the one hand free so he didn’t turn around. “Go away, Steve. We’ll come to lunch when I’m done with this.”

“Tony, tell me you didn’t _spawn_.”

Tony turned his head and glared at Rhodey for a moment before flicking all the holos away. “No. I wouldn’t inflict my genes on anyone, thanks for that.”

“I didn’t...”

Tony waved at him and talked over anything Rhodey had been about to say. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d decided that you were too busy testing _my_ armor, that you stole, to come met my teammates.”

“Let’s not start that argument again, Tony.” Rhodey jumped slightly as Francis dropped from the ceiling.

“Tony!” Francis giggled as Clint slipped out of the vent behind him. “I got to see Clint’s nest.”

“Which one?” Tony braced so Francis’ slam into his leg hit the side Hanna wasn’t on. 

Francis peeked around Tony to look at Clint. “There’s more than one?”

Clint smiled and lifted Hanna from Tony. “When I can have them, yes.” He eyed Rhodey. “Sir.” He gathered up Francis. “Come on, Francis. Tony has to be not listened to by his supposed friend and he doesn’t need us to see that.” 

Rhodey started to protest, but didn’t get the chance as Francis patted Tony’s knee before following Clint and they swept from the room. He shifted to see Tony fidgeting with a blowtorch. “What was that?”

Tony’s near smile dropped from his face and he shrugged. “Agent Barton and his kids.”

With a slow blink, Rhodey sat down. “No, I meant what Barton said.”

Tony lifted his chin slightly. “I didn’t say anything.” He cocked his head. “Guilty conscience?”

“What? No.” Rhodey narrowed his eyes. “Tony.”

With a huff, Tony headed for his door. “Come on. Lunch.” Tony waited until Rhodey had followed him out of the workshop to tap the controls and change the protocol so Rhodey would be announced next time.

“Pepper is worried that you have something to do with the meltdown in the financial world this morning.”

Tony thumbed the button for the elevator. “So she sent you to interrogate me about it.” He tapped his arc reactor as they stepped into the elevator.

“She’s just worried you’ve done something we can’t fix this time.” Rhodey frowned. “You did, didn’t you?”

With a shrug, Tony lead them out of the elevator towards the kitchen the team ate lunch in. “Does it matter?”

They entered the kitchen and Rhodey had a momentary feeling of terror as the rest of the Avengers and those two kids all stared at him. Then he squared his shoulders and caught up with Tony, who was getting coffee.

“Yeah, Tony, it matters.”

Tony took his coffee to the table and sat down next to Bruce. “I have a perfectly good reason for trashing everyone connected to the Centre.”

“Really?” Rhodey leaned over the table. “Tony, you can’t just dictate things like that...”

“Excuse me, sir.”

Tony leaned back in his chair as Steve seemed to get bigger without even moving.

Rhodey blinked and straightened up.

Steve crossed his arms. “I’m sorry. We haven’t met. I’m Captain America.”

Tony blinked. Steve never introduced himself like that. Tony opened his mouth to say something, but didn’t have the chance as Thor grabbed Rhodey’s arm.

“We will have speech, friend of Anthony.” Thor effortlessly pulled Rhodey out of the room with him.

Everyone turned from watching that to look at Tony. He shrugged. “He’s always like that. You get used to it.”

Francis bounced his bouncy ball. “Does he ever actually listen to you?”

Tony thought about it as he ate his chili. “Sure he does.” Hanna rolled her ball to him and Tony rolled it back. “He puts up with a lot from me.”

****

Thor finally released Rhodey once they were standing next to the baby chicks. “Anthony does not speak of you.”

“Uh...”

“I am certain you are as brothers given the manner in which you speak to him.” Thor crossed his arms. “You should not loom over him.”

“I think I’ve known Tony long enough...”

Thor shook his head. “You do not use your knowledge properly.”

“What?”

“His spirit is wounded.” Thor glared at him. “I have seen little of you in helping him heal that wound.”

“You can’t...” Rhodey looked down at the chicks. “Tony is an asshole most of the time. And he never listens to anyone...”

Thor raised his eyebrows. “He allows you to touch him with impunity. Do you not see the honor he bestows upon you?”

Rhodey stood blinking as Thor left the room.

****

Coulson eased Hanna down his leg to stand on the floor. “You don’t have to do this now.”

She stared at the roof access door like it was going to come to life and attack them. “No time like now.” She glanced up at him. “Right?”

Phil sighed and opened the door about two inches. Hanna stood and panted. Behind her Francis was crowding the wall.

Behind them, Steve looked like he was worrying. “Why don’t we just prop the door open and sit in here for a while?”

Francis nodded as he gripped Hanna’s arm. “I like the sound of that.”

Hanna patted his hand. “That’s just because you are scared of heights.”

Steve eased his way down the wall to sit on the floor as Phil propped open the door and the wind swept in around the corner. “Scared of heights?” Steve looked at him and Phil shrugged.

Francis wedged himself between Steve and Hanna. Phil settled with his legs stretched across the doorway. 

“More of falling.” Francis mimed a swan dive with one hand. “Falling off something is worse the higher it is up.”

Hanna edged closer to Phil’s leg. “It would give you more time to get on the Iron Man armor though.”

Steve smiled. “We should get you more crayons so you can draw Iron Man.”

She beamed at them. “I shoved the crayon named cornflower up the nose of one of the invaders.”

Phil smiled at her. “You did really good that night, Hanna.”

****

Natasha glanced up as Tony looked over her map. “What, Stark?”

He sat down, which was ever an indication of anything good. “You’ve seen me with Rhodey before, right?”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Right.” He looked confused before his face went towards neutral and settled into sort of sad. “Did I miss something? The kids didn’t seem to like him and I thought they’d get along, you know, like a house on fire.”

Natasha tilted her head. “You do realize the children read body language like you read math equations, don’t you?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“You guard yourself with Rhodey in a way that can be worrying.” She held up a hand before he could start to protest. “I’m not saying you aren’t friends, Stark. You wouldn’t have left him with functioning armor if you didn’t consider him a friend.” She leaned forward a little. “You worry you are going to disappoint him while he is around you.”

Tony blinked. “I...” He stopped and frowned. “Huh. Steve seemed upset about it.”

“Steve recognized it because you do it worse with him when you aren’t in the middle of being an ass.” Natasha pointed at the map in front of her. “Think we could hit all of these in one night?”

He looked it over. “Trying to get them while they are closed?”

“We aren’t out to kill people in this. Just deny them the supplies and records stored in these places.”

Tony nodded. “Then no.” He pointed at the Rockies. “There would be storm fronts through here that will slow us down too much.”

She nodded thoughtfully.

****

Steve flopped down on his bed with a sigh. He felt a little bad about interrupting Tony’s friend in at lunch, but the man had Tony hunching his shoulders. It had been worse than when Steve had pushed Tony’s buttons on the helicarrier.

He wished he had Howard to shake for letting Tony grow up without more friends. He knew the desperation of an only child trying to please their only and best friend. “JARVIS, you don’t happen to have any video of Howard do you?”

“Where do you like them shown, Captain?”

Steve froze for a bare moment. He hadn’t meant to ask for something that would bother Tony the next time he paid attention to JARVIS’ report of Steve’s requests. Well, it was too late to worry about it now. “Uhm. The wall would be fine.”

The wall screen came on and Steve settled in to watch.

****


	12. Howard's Creation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start shaking out in prep to take out the Centre's remaining fertility clinics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is late because I had a anniversary party to go to for my friend. :) And then 502 errors bit. 
> 
> Again, I'm not trying to bash any character. Given what they knew when they knew it there are reasons for how everyone acts/reacts. :D
> 
> The movie in this one is _Lilo and Stitch_. I adore Stitch. Even if his name sucks to try to spell when you've got dyslexia.

****

Steve just stared. Howard looked defeated. So very tired. And so much older. It looked like JARVIS was showing him in backwards order or something. “JARVIS, is there anything earlier?” 

“Yes, Captain, there is.”

The scene changed and then Howard, the age Steve remembered, was staring at him. “Hi, Steve.” 

Steve automatically waved a little.

Howard shifted like he was uncomfortable. “I...You’d be so mad at me.” He sighed. “I thought we’d find you. That Dr. Erskine had been right when we discussed how the serum and the vita-rays would interact. That you’d be able to survive freezing temperatures for some time.” He rubbed the side of his face. “None of the searches have found anything. Now, we have to do something drastic. Something you’d never approve of.”

The scene cut and Steve frowned as in the next clip Howard looked...horrible. He was ashen and very thin. 

“I don’t even know why I’m making this. There’s no way you’ll be found alive. I just couldn’t...” He closed his eyes and breathed deep. “We stopped the war. At least that’s what they are saying.” He looked straight into the camera. “I just helped to kill two whole cities in Japan with a new sort of bomb. The atom bomb.”

Steve gasped. They told him in one of the briefings about the atom bombs, but to see the effect on Howard...to see what Howard had thought about what he’d helped to cause. It was awful.

The scene cut again and this time Howard looked tired, older, his hair starting to gray. In Howard’s arms was a chubby baby. 

“Hi, Steve. I thought...well, I needed to say this out loud. Only I can’t let anyone hear it, so I figured I tell it to you. Since you’re dead and all.” Howard frowned down at the baby as he burbbled, his tiny arms waving about. “This is my son, Anthony Edward Stark. Maria, his mother, is calling him Tony. That’ll stick I suppose.” Howard looked back up to the camera. “He isn’t my son.”

Steve straightened up and leaned forward as Howard shifted the baby Tony to his other arm. 

“See, I worked with radiation. Lots of it to make the a-bombs. We didn’t really know what we were doing. It was all so new. I knew it might mean no children, so I used an experimental procedure to freeze some of my sperm. I thought once technology advanced we’d be able to reverse any damage to it.” Howard shrugged. “Nevermind that.” He bounced Tony as the baby started to wave his arms more. “He’s mine, but not. We went to a fertility clinic to help us conceive.”

Steve cocked his head as the screen went blank and another scene started. Howard looked drunk, and the Tony in this one was toddling across the floor in front of Howard’s knees. 

“Hey, Star Spangled Ste...ve.” Howard slushed his glass of liquor and little Tony turned his head to look at him. “Last one of these. I promised myself.” Howard patted Tony on the head clumsily. “He _is_ mine after all.” Howard chuckled. “Those bastards used some of my money from starting SHEILD to make something else. They were running the fertility clinic’s lab. They created him in a petri dish.” Howard laughed bitterly. “My greatest creation the bastard called him. He’s a fucking toddler, but give him a math equation and he can finish it.” Howard leaned over and arranged some blocks next to himself. “See? Tony, here.”

The small boy came closer, keeping an eye on Howard as he approached. Then he saw the equation and squealed. He grabbed up the blocks and shifted things around and then smiled up at Howard, who patted him on the head.

“Good, Tony.” Howard looked back to the camera. “His math is never wrong. I’m going to teach him to look for you. He’ll be the one to find you. You deserve a proper fucking burial at least.” Howard toasted the screen. “Goodbye, Captain America.”

Steve rubbed his eyes as the screen went dark.

“Would you like the footage from the various Expos, Captain?”

“No.” Steve cleared his throat. “Not...not right now.” 

****

Pepper laughed at Rhodey as soon as the video call connected. He glared. 

“What exactly do you think is so funny?”

“You look like someone ruffled your feathers.”

He sighed and turned the phone so she could see behind him to the chicks in their brooder. “You had me walk right into a trap.”

She dimpled as she smiled. “Did I?” She lifted her chin a little. “Tell me about it. Which one defended Tony?”

“Uhm. All of them?”

Pepper did a little bouncy, shimmy dance thing. Rhodey raised his eyebrows at her and she just smiled wider. “You have no idea how happy I am.”

“You are happy because Thor told me I don’t appreciate Tony enough? And Captain America glared at me. Also, where the fuck did the kids come from? They hate me.”

She reigned in her smile for a few moments. “They don’t hate you. They love Tony.” She looked down her nose at him. “You have noticed Tony changed since he became Iron Man and quit dying from it, right?” She turned her head so she was looking at him with her left eye. “You did see him nearly die to keep a nuke from destroying New York, right?”

“Uhm.” He blinked. Well, yeah, he’d noticed, but it was just Tony being weird wasn’t it? He’d started doing things Rhodey didn’t really understand coming from Tony. He turned his head and looked towards the kitchen. “Oh.”

Pepper smiled more fondly. “There you go. He has friends, Rhodey. I’m hoping they stick around long enough to become his family. I wanted you to see it. To _feel_ the difference.”

“Are you sure that’s Tony?”

She laughed and hung up on him.

****

Hanna eased herself over the edge of Clint’s nest. “You like this one best?”

Clint helped her get her feet in. “In this building, yes.” He lay back and let her cuddle up to his side. “You don’t mind the height?”

She shifted so she was lying mostly on top of him. “No. What do we call this?”

He blinked. “Which ‘this’ are you calling this?”

She put her chin on his sternum. “All the adults, Francis, and me. We’re what? Is there a word for it?”

“Oh.” Clint smiled. “I call it ‘ohana’ in my own head.”

She patted his chest. “You feel better.”

He curled his arm across her little back. “Thanks, Hanna. How about you ask to watch _Lilo and Stitch_ tonight? It’ll show you the concept for the word.”

Hanna smiled. “Can Tony complain about it? He likes to complain.”

Clint snorted. “Oh, he’ll complain alright.”

****

Coulson sat down across from Bruce and watched the man work. It was quiet and soothing in a way Coulson missed sometimes.

Bruce glanced up, noticed him there, and pulled his glasses off. “Uhm, Coulson?”

“Go on with what you were doing, Doc.”

“Okay.” Bruce watched him for a minute and then put his glasses back on. He shifted the screen between them more to one side. “You look tired.”

“Getting stabbed in the pericardial sac and brushing the phrenic nerve can do that to a person.”

Bruce winced. “Through the lung too, huh?”

Phil nodded. “Yes.” He rubbed at the lower edge of the forming scar. “For some reason the tip pushed aside my heart instead of piercing it.”

“Have you wondered why he stabbed you instead of trying to overtake your mind?” Bruce rubbed his fingers across the bridge of his nose, pushing his glasses up as he did.

“I have.” Phil looked up at the ceiling. “Loki is crazy. Smart, but crazy.”

Bruce nodded. “You missed it when I said you could smell crazy on him.”

Phil nearly smiled. “I would have liked to have heard that. He was in Barton’s head. If there is one person Barton would think could take Loki’s plan apart...”

“Uh. And you still were the one to take apart his plan.” Bruce tapped a graph on his screen.

“Maybe, unless that was Loki’s plan all along.”

Bruce looked up again. “What do you mean?”

Phil shrugged. “Just worrying.” 

“I don’t think Loki’s plan involved being repeatedly banged against the floor by the other guy.”

“Hmm.” Phil pulled up JARVIS’ footage of that fight. “Have you seen it? Loki whimpers there at the end.”

“No, I haven't. Whimpers? Really?” Bruce flicker his graph away because it could wait. He leaned on his folded arms as the video started with Loki yelling at the Hulk. “That was just stupid of Loki.”

Phil laughed. “Yes, just a bit stupid.”

****

Natasha looked up as Rhodey came into the room. “Rhodes.”

“Ma’am.” He wondered closer and looked down at her map. “What is this?”

“Targets to burn.” She looked up at him. “Anyone explain the Centre to you yet?”

He shook his head. “Mostly I’ve been getting laughed at by Pepper, and glared at by Captain America.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “You should know that Stark considers you important enough to come to me for advice on the situation.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “I take it you consider that unsual...”

“I terrify him.”

“Ah.” Rhodes pointed at the map. “This is the United States.”

She rolled her eyes. “Astute observation.” She pulled up the video file of Clint pretending Stark’s kidnapping. “Here, watch this.”

Three video files later and Rhodes was helping her work out where to split the map for War Machine to help them.

****

Hanna frowned at the bowl in Thor’s lap. “So you burn the corn until it turns inside out and you _eat_ it?”

Francis tried a single popped kernel. Everyone watched him as he chewed. He looked at Hanna and shrugged. “Tastes like butter.”

She poked the pile of popcorn with her finger and watched as it spilled over the side of the bowl. “Hot butter. Can I have an ice thing instead?”

Steve picked her up and sat her between Clint and Tony. “Try the popcorn first. Then if you don’t like it you can have an ice pop.”

She sighed and accepted a piece of popcorn as the movie queued up. “Oh. I like it. More!”

Clint tapped her on the head. “More, please. Do not follow Thor for social conventions without checking with someone else first.”

Francis glanced up from his spot. “We can still have ice pops, though, right?”

“Yes.” Clint eased further down into the pillows with a smile.

****

Rhodey looked over the group. Everyone asleep except Thor, who was watching him and the door. “You don’t sleep?”

Thor moved his head and one shoulder in a shrug-like motion. “I do not need as much sleep.”

He looked at Tony, sprawled in the middle of a pile that consisted of the children, Barton, Banner, and Rogers. It was disconcerting to realize he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Tony touch anyone outside of shaking hands with reporters. 

“Watch over him for me?”

Thor nodded. “I will endeavour to do so.” His tone said, I’m not doing it for _you_.

Rhodey slipped out of the room and went to start prepping his statement that he’d need for the cover up for attacking targets on American soil.

****


	13. Questions and Flight Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's questions prompt Bruce to think of questions of his own.

****

Steve approached Bruce after a lot of consideration. “Doc.”

Bruce looked up from his screen and blinked. “Uh, hi.” He took his glasses off. “What can I do for you, Cap?”

Steve settled onto the stool across from Bruce and ignored the screen next to his elbow that came to life with math equations. Tony’s normal seat then. Or maybe the children. “Could you explain to me how nuclear radiation affects the ability to have children?”

Bruce’s eyebrows drew together. “Uhm.” He gestured down himself. “I wouldn’t have children with the, uh, other guy problem. If that’s what is worrying you.”

Steve grimaced. “What? No.” He shook his head. “No, no. I meant in general.” He shrugged. “It was something Howard mentioned and I never got a chance to learn about it.” He wasn’t even lying, so his ears weren’t turning red on him.

“Oh.” Bruce straightened up in a way that made Steve realize just how much Bruce did to make himself appear smaller. “On males specifically?”

“Sure.” Steve tried not to smile too wide as Bruce launched into a explanation with words Steve had never heard. He went into memorize everything mode and started nodding in all the right places. Steve could look up the terminology later. Even if it meant asking JARVIS for help.

****

Bruce watched Steve retreat from his lab. “Well, that was weird.” He scratched his head for a moment. “Uh, JARVIS, do you know why Captain Rogers suddenly took interest in a topic he doesn’t even know the base facts for?”

“Captain Rogers has recently watched videos made by Howard Stark.”

“Huh. Okay.” Bruce went back to his experiment. 

Several minutes later, Bruce froze as a realization hit him. He frantically pulled up the DNA data on the whole group of children and started scanning it.

****

Coulson looked over the map of the fertility clinics. “Is this finalized?”

Natasha looked up from where she was inserting their flights into the databases for the various airports they’d be going in and out of during the operation. “Yes.”

Phil narrowed his eyes at the Rockies. “We’re trusting War Machine with that much real estate?”

She shrugged. “He’s feeling guilty.” She pointed at Colorado Springs. “Also, his current base is there. So, in the official statements we’ll be better off if he’s in the area.”

Nodding, Phil tapped a clinic in the middle of South Dakota. The infographic expanded to give him layout and video captures from the nearest gas station’s security cameras. “At least the suits of armor are different enough color schemes that no one will confuse the two.”

Natasha frowned. “We are not going to be able to do this quietly. The Council is already screaming for our heads on a silver platter.”

Phil nodded. “They were until Stark’s virus started moving their funds.” He backed the map up to the top level and stared at the placements around the country. “Now they are too busy saving their own asses to spare a thought towards the Avengers.”

“What’s he doing with the money?” Natasha finished another flight plan.

He started to answer, but then he tilted his head. “When did the clinic in Long Island become operational?”

She tapped the icon and the information known came up. Natasha frowned at Coulson’s back as he hurried out of the room. She glared at the map for a while before dismissing it from her mind as she went back to inserting flight plans into databases.

****

Francis clung to Thor’s hand as they stepped out of the roof access door. Hanna had her head buried in Thor’s knee. 

“We are well, young ones.” Thor stopped them a few feet from the door. He eased Hanna away long enough to sit down and let the children climb into his lap. “The stars are different here than in my realm.”

Hanna turned her head and peeked up at the sky. “There aren’t any stars.”

Thor brushed back her hair. “It isn’t night yet.”

“Also, the city lights drown out the stars.” Clint settled down next to them. “It took me awhile to get used to looking up and not seeing a ceiling.”

Francis twisted so his feet were under Clint’s closer knee. “Why aren’t you afraid of heights like me?”

Clint’s face went tight for a second before it smoothed out. “I ened up in a circus after I escaped the Centre. The man that taught me how to shoot with a bow wasn’t always nice. The only place he couldn't get was up high in the big tent. I got over heights.”

Hanna tilted her face up towards the sky and took deep breaths. “There’s so much of it.”

Thor rubbed her tiny back. “And it is glorious.”

****

Coulson let himself into Stark’s workshop and stood near the door while the robots moved around Stark being alternatively scolded and praised.

The music wasn’t too loud. Phil thought the volume was incidiative of when Stark really felt the need to keep people out. After a while, Dum-E brushed Stark’s elbow until Stark turned to look.

“Oh, hey. Agent Coulson. How goes the map of doomed for destruction? We about ready with that?” Stark turned back to his soldering. “I’m ready whenever you all are. New suit and everything.” He peeked at Phil from the corner of his eye. “Unless something is wrong?” He rasied his eyebrows. “Something isn’t wrong, is it?”

Phil shook his head as he stepped closer and sat down on the nearest empty chair. “Nothing is wrong.”

“Uh huh.” Tony threw down the tool he’d been using. “That’s why you look like someone took your favorite taser.”

“What do you remember about your first kidnapping?”

Tony blinked, frowned, and then cocked his head. “What?” He licked his lips. “What does that have to do with anything at all?”

Phil rubbed the pad of his thumb against the side of his index finger. “SHEILD asked for the simulation on your kidnapping.”

“They...Of course they did.” Tony twirled the stool he was on around to fully face Phil. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking the typical age to be kidnapped by the Centre is three to six years old.”

Tony made a rude noise. “Me? You think they were trying to get me...” He stopped, frowning. Tony rubbed his hand across his chin. “Why?”

Phil looked at him like he was stupid. “Really, Stark?”

“Wait, how did you know SHIELD asked for anything?”

“I checked.” Phil crossed his arms and ignored the way it pulled on the scar on his back. He’d change his physical therapy later. “The simulation didn’t give any conclusive information.”

Tony half-turned towards Dum-E as he approached them. “And you think that’s because the Centre didn’t want to give away that they’d taken me?”

Before Phil could answer, Bruce burst into the workshop.

“Tony.” Bruce looked at Phil and then at Tony. “Uhm, I’m sorry.”

Phil stood up. “It is okay, Doctor Banner. We were just finishing.” He inclined his head towards Tony. “I’ll get back to the map.”

He could feel their eyes on him as he left the workshop.

****

Tony turned to give Bruce the once over. “What?”

“Uh.” Bruce moved closer and skirted around Dum-E. “I had a thought. I checked the children against Steve’s DNA.”

“What?” Tony looked at him funny as he pulled up a list of the children. On a side screen he checked the progress of the outfitting of the farm Steve had chosen. “Why?”

“Something he said made me think they could have frozen his sperm and tried to make...babies.”

Tony blinked. “Shit.” 

Bruce waved his hands. “Nope, no. I checked. None of them match him.” He made a face. “Thing is then I got to thinking. Steve asked me for information because of something he remembered your father saying.” Bruce nodded to the list of children. “So I got worried and checked them against you.”

“Oh, fuck.” Tony rubbed his hands over his face. “Please, please, don’t tell me I have spawn.”

Bruce eased closer and Tony let him. “Tony...”

“Just tell me.” He scrolled absently through the list. “Oh, fuck. They didn’t clone me, did they? That’s just what the world needs, another fucking walking disaster.”

“No.” Bruce wrapped his arm around Tony’s shoulders. “No, Tony. You don’t have spawn. Or clones.”

“Oh.” Tony looked down at his feet. “That’s...good. Good.” He took a breathe. “That’s the way it should be.”

“Tony, I found a DNA record for a half-sibling.”

“I...” Tony made a face. “I didn’t think to check past Barton, you know?”

“I know.” Bruce turned Tony so they were hugging. “He isn’t in the group. I just found a DNA file, but I can’t find him.” He tightened his hold on Tony. “I’m sorry, Tony.”

Tony’s arms came up and Bruce cupped the back of Tony’s head as he just stood and shakily breathed.

****

After dinner they gathered around the map while Hanna and Francis changed the chicks’ bedding.

Coulson frowned. “If we are going to find information on this possible sibling of Stark’s it’ll slow us down too much to get them all in one night.”

Natasha pointed at the map. “We could split the map and do it in two nights.”

Clint shook his head. “No. The remaining ones would destroy their records once they heard the news.”

Steve glared down at the map. “Would each clinic have only the records from its own operation, or would they pool the data?”

“Oh.” Bruce leaned forward. “If we can access the data from them all in one clinic we could be downloading from it while destroying the rest.”

Tony flicked his fingers across the map, highlighting certain clinics. “These are less likely to be the central information hubs.” He tapped the clinic in Long Island. “I say we start with this one.”

Steve nodded. “Alright. Tomorrow night?” They all nodded. He looked at each of them in turn.

****

Tony ignored Steve until he settled beside Tony in the group. The movie’s credits started to roll and Tony looked over the sleeping lumps of his teammates and the kids. He looked back to Steve. “What?”

“I know you don’t like me.” Steve shrugged. “I didn’t exactly make a good impression on you.”

Tony snorted. “I don’t think either one of us did.”

Steve nodded. “Okay. Uhm.” He looked down at Tony and made a face. “I try not to talk about him around you.”

“Thanks, I think.”

With a sigh, Steve tucked the blanket covering Francis tighter around him. “Howard recorded movies for me. He kept doing it after you were born.”

“I don’t want to hear this, Cap.” Tony looked down at where Hanna was weighing down Tony’s legs.

“I know.” Steve clasped his hands together. “I’m not...Howard thought he couldn’t have kids. So your parents went to a fertility clinic.”

Tony blinked. “Fuck.” He rubbed his hand through his hair, standing more up on end. “They got me from the Centre's clinic. That’s why the fuckers kidnapped me.”

“You are their son, Tony.” Steve sketched cube shapes in the air. “You really should have seen you. Toddling and so _happy_ to do math.” 

Tony extracted himself from under Hanna, who grumbled in her sleep, and made his way to the nearest wall. He slid down it and rubbed at the arc reactor in his chest. “No wonder he never liked me.”

Steve sat down near Tony on the floor. “Howard didn’t like himself, Tony.” Steve didn’t follow as Tony pushed himself upright and he fled the room.

****


	14. And the Clinics Burn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The map of destruction burns merrily in the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most all the notes are at the end so as not to spoil anyone for this chapter. :)
> 
> There is brief talk of a miscarriage in this part.

****

Natasha plugged in the drive Stark had given her to brute force the clinic’s computer into giving up all its information. She checked her watch and listened to the chatter on the comms as Bruce called the fire department to report the fire they hadn’t started yet. 

“Seven minutes.” Steve’s voice sounded even, but Natasha had seen the man’s shoulders when Stark had dropped out of the quinjet.

She was considering locking the two of them in a room until they actually talked. Or killed each other, whichever came first. Natasha flipped through the papers in the filing cabinet until the drive beeped.

Natasha pulled it and stuck the small explosive to the side of the computer tower. Then she high-tailed it to the next floor.

Four and a half minutes later she scrambled up into the quinjet and they rose into the sky as Coulson deftly turned them up and out of the clinic’s parking lot. Natasha nodded and Clint flicked the guard open on the trigger for the explosives. He blew the clinic.

They hovered to watch it burn until fire trucks appeared in the distance.

****

At clinic number four they smashed it apart because it was nestled too close to other buildings to burn.

Clinic number nine was another thought to be an information hub so Natasha plugged in another prepped drive. This clinic was one of the oldest operational ones left. The filing cabinets around her were various ages. She picked the oldest looking one and rifled through it as she waited on the drive.

Below her, the others were planting explosives and cutting carefully through the support pillars. This building had to come down in a controlled explosion or they risked damage to the school next door.

She hit files marked Stark. Frowning, she pulled them all, unzipped the front of her suit, tucked them inside, and zipped back up. She went up a drawer in the filing cabinet and scanned that one.

The drive beeped and she left the cabinet to pull the drive. She placed an incendiary device on top of the file cabinet, pulled the pin, watched the spoon flip away, and left before it started to melt through the metal.

****

Clint offered an arm to Natasha as she leaped for the quinjet’s open door. He watched as Iron Man swooped up and out of the building. Thor came from the other side and landed next to them.

“Good?”

Natasha was pulling paper files from her suit even as she nodded. “Fire in the files should be going merrily.”

Clint looked to Cap, who nodded solemnly. Clint grinned a little too wide as he triggered the chain explosion that would drop the building. Coulson kept them hovering until the building was down in a cloud of dust. 

The quinjet rose and Iron Man landed in the back as the doors started to close. Stark popped the face plate up.

“How we doing?”

Cap looked up from the tablet that held their map. “We’re a little ahead of the schedule.” 

Bruce took the files from Natasha and started to look through them. “How long until the next one?”

Coulson turned his head. “With the tailwind, about 35 minutes.”

With a nod, Bruce buried himself in the files Nat had gotten.

Clint forced himself not to clench his hand as Nat sat down next to him. “You okay?”

She held out the little thumb drive to Stark as she nodded. “You?”

He shrugged and watched Stark plug the drive into a device. “I liked the flames we got on the Kentucky clinic.”

“They were nice.” Natasha watched him carefully.

Clint leaned back in his seat and tried to look like he was going to sleep. He listened as Nat huffed, before shifting enough she was using him for a pillow. He mentally sighed, but let her since she was letting him not talk about it all.

“Shit.”

Clint jerked upright as Nat reached for her guns. They were all staring at Bruce who was looking at one of the files in his lap. Then he looked up and grimaced.

“Oh, ah, sorry.” He pushed his glasses further up on his nose. “That half-sibling we couldn’t find a record for beyond the DNA report? Well, I found him.” Bruce leaned over and handed the file to Stark.

Clint winced as Tony read the file. He could tell it was bad.

“He was older than me.” Tony flipped a page. “They never said they’d lost a baby.” He read some more and then snapped the file closed. “Uh.”

Steve gently lifted the file from Tony’s hands and retreated into the cockpit with Coulson. Nat pulled on Tony’s gauntlet.

“Lay down, Stark.”

Tony just blinked and Thor finally pulled the man down until he was laying out on the floor with his head on Thor’s thigh.

Nat curled up next to him and rested one of her feet on top of Clint’s boot. “Sleep.”

Clint obediently closed his eyes and listened to everyone breathe. It was a good sound.

****

Coulson closed the cockpit door with a punch of a button as Steve opened the file he’d brought forward with him. “How bad is it?”

“I don’t know what people call this now.”

“What do you call it?” Phil matched them up to the prearranged flight plan and watched their velocity carefully.

“Blue baby.” Steve looked up from the file. “It says here Maria Stark miscarried before this baby. And this one lived a few hours.”

Phil nodded. “Rh factors. It is rarer now for the baby to die.” He trimmed their vector. “The mother can get shots now that keep her from producing antibodies against the baby.”

“Really? Swell.” Steve closed the file. “I had hoped we’d find him alive. Tony deserved a sibling.”

“There was no guarantee.”

Steve stared out the windshield. “I know.”

Phil glanced at him. “Maybe you could wear him down until he decides to be friends.”

With a snort, Steve leaned his head back against the headrest. “I think I’m lucky Tony lets me stay in the tower.”

There wasn’t much he could argue about that one. Phil checked War Machine's location, which was right where it should be. He checked their position. “Ten minutes out.”

Steve stood up. “I’ll wake the others.”

****

Bruce grimaced as Tony dropped out of the quinjet before his thrusters fired and he swooped up, turning to fly by the clinic and check it for people.

Thor went out and up to get them cloud cover. 

Natasha dropped out to land lightly in the dirt as soon as Tony reported they were clear. Steve shifted next to Bruce. 

“You okay, Doc?”

Bruce nodded. “I wish I’d kept quiet.”

Steve shrugged as he pulled the coul into place. “He’d have felt bad whenever he was told about it. Nothing you could do about that, Doc.”

“Still.” Bruce watched as Tony pulled the junction box open and started pulling breakers.

“Hey! Flip that one back on!”

“Ooops.” Stark flipped a couple back into the on position. “Didn’t think you were going to pull more information.”

Natasha voice sounded snippy. “Stick to the plan, _mudak_.”

“What did you just call me? My AI seems to think it wasn’t ladylike.”

“Focus, people.” Captain America dropped out of the quinjet to land next to Iron Man. “Go start on the foundation. I can do this.”

Iron Man’s glowing eyes stared at him for a second before he turned and flew off.

Bruce moved to the cockpit. “We ready for me to call it in, yet?”

Coulson punched a button. “Fifteen more seconds.”

Then there was considerable cussing over the comms in Russian. Bruce turned in time to see Clint rush to the back of the quinjet. He followed and they both looked out the open hatch to the placid clinic beneath them.

Captain America was looking up at them from the junction box. “Report, Black Widow.”

“I’m fine.Twenty seconds until Thor can go.” She sounded pissed.

Bruce and Clint exchanged looks. Then he hurried back to the cockpit to make the emergency call.

****

With her bare hands, oh yes. She was going to strangle every one of the doctors that thought they could just play with people’s lives. With her bare hands. She was going to track them all down to their hidey holes and kill them. Mercy was too good for them, the utter bastards. Natasha sped down the hallway with another file tucked in her suit against the skin of her belly. This one she wasn’t letting anyone see until they were done.

She passed Iron Man melting holes in the foundation and was joined by Captain America on the dirt of the parking lot as the quinjet maneuvered around to come lower. She didn’t wait for it to land completely before leaping up into the open hatch.

Natasha ignored the concerned looks and the silent exchanges as she stomped forward into the cockpit and slammed the door closed between the compartments. She flopped in the co-pilot’s chair as Coulson turned them to see Thor’s lightning strike hit the clinic. Iron Man hovered to the quinjet’s two o’clock.

“Get inside, Iron Man.”

Stark hovered for a moment before kicking in his thrusters. “I’ll met you at the next stop.”

Coulson sighed as the suit disappeared out of sight. “Want to tell me what that was about?”

“Do you think every genius in the country is the product of the Centre?”

Phil turned his raised eyebrow, deadpan, tell me now face on her.

Natasha pulled the offending file from her suit and locked in a side compartment. “After the operation.”

Another sigh, and Coulson handed the flying off to her. “I’m going to take a nap.”

She nodded and forced herself not to wrench them upwards as Thor’s weight settled onto the quinjet. “Get Thor to come inside. Quinjet surfing is not acceptable.”

He almost smirked at her before shutting the cockpit door behind himself.

Natasha checked they were matching their cover flight plan and sheathed as she flew.

****

Tony knew that he shouldn’t care about a baby long dead, but he kept having to flip the face plate up between stops and wipe at his face. It sucked. Bruce handed him a cloth and Tony blew his nose. “This wasn’t as fun as I thought it’d be.”

“Sorry.” Bruce was hunched over in a way he hadn’t been in a while.

“Don’t be.” Tony frowned at the closed cockpit door and Coulson hovering near it. “She must have found something.”

Bruce nodded. “Didn’t sound good.”

“Nope.” Tony thought about checking their progress, but he really didn’t feel like it. “Where are we?”

“Three more to go.” Bruce looked at his watch-slash-heartbeat monitor. “Betty said to call her when we started in on the West coast.”

“Uhm.” Tony rubbed his forehead where he was getting a damn headache. “Remind me to get her a pay raise for babysitting the kids.”

“Tony, she’s not even gotten her first paycheck yet.”

“So?” Tony closed his eyes. “Babysitting wasn’t in the position description.”

“How do you know that?” Bruce eased closer, Tony could feel it. “Betty said Coulson asked JARVIS if you had a job position saved for her.”

“Yeah.” He was too tired to care what he said right now. “I figured if you wouldn’t stay you’d at least visit if she was working for me.”

Bruce’s hand cupped Tony’s cheek. It was wet again, damn watery eyes. Tony blinked his eyes open. Bruce looked concerned and sort of blurry.

“Tony, you don’t always need to bribe people to be friends with you. I like you for you, not for your toys.”

Right. Like that being himself was a good thing. “Okay.”

Bruce sighed and patted Tony’s armored knee. “I’ll explain it to you when you aren’t in shock.”

He wiped angrily at his wet cheeks. “I’m not in shock.”

“Okay.” Bruce nodded and sat back. “I’ll just be over here not believing you.”

****

Coulson sat them down in the pre-dawn light on the roof of Stark Tower and got as close to Fury as he dared as he did it.

He herded the Avengers out of the quinjet, making sure to get the file Natasha had locked up. He tucked in his back waistband and flicked his suit jacket down over it.

Fury was frowning at them as they ignored him completely. Coulson stopped by Fury as the roof access door swung closed behind Clint.

“Enjoyable night?” Fury didn’t sound overly upset.

“Lovely flying weather, Boss.”

Fury gave a small snort before striding towards the quinjet. “Stark looked tired.” Fury turned towards him partway up the ramp. “Keep up the good work, Agent.”

Coulson nodded. “Thanks, Boss.” He followed his team down into the tower, but not before squinting at the half-finished coop sitting on the opposite edge of the roof.

****

Bruce got to watch Tony, bare of his suit of armor, drop to lay between the children. Betty raised her head and smiled tiredly at him just as Natasha crowded him towards the kitchen.

“We need to talk.”

“That sounds ominous.” He watched her carefully as she sat down across the table from him.

She eyed him for a second before pushing a file with dogeared edges across the table at him. “I didn’t curse because of what it says. I...wanted you to know I wasn’t cursing because of you.”

He frowned and opened the file. “Okay.” He started to read and then he stopped. Bruce closed his eyes and breathed. “Why me?”

“If this is right...”

“Just tell me. Don’t make me try to read through it.” He couldn’t process it. A file on him. His name, with his mom’s fucking signatures showing she’d let them think she was a single mother.

“The family tree page is coded, but if I’m reading it correctly...” Natasha touched the back of his clenched hand. “Four half-siblings.”

He took a shuddery breath. “Which side? My father?”

“Bruce.” Natasha tapped Morse Code into the back of his hand until he looked up at her. “This says your biological father isn’t the man you grew up calling father.”

“Four?”

She turned the file and pointed. “This code is Jarod’s. These two are his full siblings. This one is a half through his father. You are from that father.”

Bruce leaned forward to rest his forehead on the cool of the marble tabletop. “Fuck.”

“The last report says they decided not to extract you because of the unstable influence from a parent with an alcohol problem.”

Bruce brought his hands up beside his head and laid them limply on the table. “He was a fucking drunkard.” He lifted his head. “The rescued kids. We never checked them against me.”

She nodded at him and handed him a tissue. “I’ll have JARVIS check if he hasn’t already. And this time we check against everyone.”

He nodded and blew his nose. Then he went into the other room and crawled into the nest with everyone else. He’d think about it later. Much later.

Clint made a small noise of distress. Bruce patted the man’s arm as he settled down between Clint and Francis. Tony was snoring on the other side of Francis.

Betty spread a blanket over him. “Sleep, Bruce. We’ll work on fixing whatever it is once everyone has slept.”

He nodded tiredly. There wasn’t anything he could do about it now. He watched the color of his skin until his eyes slipped closed.

****

Pepper tried not to let her evil chackle out as the news went into overdrive about the conspiracy to destroy the country that breaking news of the destruction of the fertility clinics caused. Well, she allowed herself a small evil laugh. Then she reined it in and started checking for injuries or property damage they had not meant to cause.

Later she laughed as the news shows started talking about it being an act of God when they got around to the fertility clinic that had burned down from a lightning strike. 

Once Tony had gotten enough sleep, Pepper found out about the baby older brother that hadn’t made it. She found an acceptable headstone and arranged for it to be placed next to Tony’s parents’ graves as she listened to him ramble about stupid choices and what _had_ his parents been thinking. When Tony crashed again, Pepper called Thor to carry Tony back down to the kids.

Pepper found out about Bruce’s suddenly expanded family from Betty a little while later and started hunting for them. The Centre might not have been able to find them, but the Centre had never had JARVIS.

She stopped for a moment to thank every deity she could remember a name for that the Centre hadn’t been able to handle Tony. That he’d not given the Centre all the advances, weapons, tools, and, fuck, the AI’s code that he’d made over the years.

Once she was sure everything she could do was as in place as she could get it, Pepper called Rhodey.

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blue baby is what my family always called it. If the mom is Rh- and the father is Rh+ then there is a chance the baby will be Rh+ as well. The first time this happens (like my grandmother having my mom) usually the baby is fine (although the baby can miscarry for other reasons, like Maria in the fic), but the mother's body makes antibodies to the Rh+ factors. The next RH+ baby (the unnamed baby boy that lived two hours) has problems. If the baby is Rh- (the next baby) then there isn't a problem. The fourth baby my grandmother had was one of the first they tried a full blood exchange on and one of the very first with that procedure to survive to adulthood. Nowadays if they can catch the Rh- mother on the first pregnancy with a Rh+ baby they can give her shots to keep her from having problems later. She'd need the shots with each pregnancy with a Rh+ baby.
> 
> I googled Russian curse words and the one I ended up using may be completely wrong usage since the page said it was a slang term. Sorry. I don't have a friend that speaks Russian. Hopefully it is right and does mean Nat called Tony a dickhead. If not, please pretend. ;)
> 
> I know I barely mention War Machine in this chapter, but there are reasons, I promise. :)
> 
> And for everyone that knows Pretender, I'm going with Major Charles actually being Jarod's father. Which makes Jarod have two full siblings, and one half-sibling through Charles. Thus four half-siblings total for there to be for our Avenger.


	15. Thor Cooks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor cooks dinner while various others rant, angst, or get rudely awoken.

****

Rhodey landed and started shedding the armor. The three clinics he’d been entrusted to destroy were gone, but Rhodey had gotten too low too fast on the descent to the second clinic. He was pretty sure he’d been noticed. He was pretty sure they had been drunk college students, but he’d darted behind a building too fast to be certain.

He picked up his phone to call Tony, but then he stopped. He closed his eyes and sighed. He needed to be in his office in two and a half hours. Sleep first, Tony later. Rhodey nodded to himself and headed home.

****

Francis watched Thor settled Tony back down on the blankets. “Is he okay?” 

Thor patted Tony’s back and then straighten up. “He is heartsick. It will fade with time.” Thor held out his hand towards Francis. “Shall we see what there is to feast on?”

It had taken him a few days to get used to Thor’s way of talking. “Yes.” He held up his arms and Thor scooped him up. Francis watched Tony over Thor’s shoulder until they were out in the hallway. “Is everyone heartsick right now?”

Thor sighed and turned into the kitchen. “Everyone is sadden from the knowledge of the loss of Anthony’s sibling.” Thor sat him on the floor.

Francis darted across the kitchen to his chair at the table and clambered up into it. Coulson was across the table, surrounded with files. “Are you heartsick?”

Phil looked up at him and then back to the papers. “No. I’m angry.”

Francis looked him over carefully. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Phil narrowed his eyes at him. “Why do you ask?”

“You are hard to read.” Francis grinned up at Thor as he sat a glass of milk down in front of him. “Thanks.”

“You are welcome.” Thor moved to the stove and started a pan heating. “Would you feast with us, Son of Coul?”

Francis tried not to giggle as Phil rolled his eyes at Thor’s back.

“Yes, I could eat.” Phil looked at Francis. “How is the coop coming?”

Francis grinned. “Steve is doing everything for us. He says if we want we can ask Tony to make a garden on the roof.” Francis pulled a file Phil wasn’t actively reading towards himself. “Steve says he read about them and they reminded him of victory gardens.”

Phil took the file away from him. “Why don't you go see if you can get Bruce to come eat?”

“Okay!” Francis hurried out of the kitchen. Out of sight of the adults he stopped and looked back frowning. The files had all had Centre’s logo on them. Francis made a detour back to the movie room and checked that Tony was still sleeping. Beside him sat Steve drawing in his stetchbook.

Francis frowned because Steve felt just as bad as Tony had. If they were friends, then they could make each other happy. Francis grinned. He could help them become friends. 

Thinking about how to get them to be friends, Francis headed for Bruce’s floor.

****

Hanna kept her hands curled tight in Bruce’s shirt as he paced. She only opened her eyes when they walked north so Bruce wouldn’t see her reflection in the window and decide he needed to put her down.

“I wish I could ask her what she thought she was doing.”

Betty looked clam, but was tensed worriedly. “She could have wanted children that weren’t his.”

Bruce tightened his arm around Hanna’s back and kept pacing. “She never said.”

“Maybe she didn’t know?” Betty turned in her chair so she was kneeling, watching Bruce over the back of the armchair. “From what I’ve read of this Centre, they didn’t exactly care about people.”

Hanna held on as Bruce suddenly turned and moved towards Betty.

“Get her off me, Betty.”

“Bruce, she has tangled her fingers in the buttonholes.” Betty soothed her hand over Bruce’s shoulder and winked at Hanna around Bruce’s back.

Hanna smiled at her and made a unhappy whimper noise. Bruce muttered under his breath and went back to pacing.

“Clint isn’t even sure how old Jarod is.” Bruce went across the room and back again. “Tony should have gotten to be siblings with him, not me.”

Betty frowned and Hanna considered kicking Bruce in the side.

“That’s stupid.” Betty stepped in the way of Bruce’s pacing and wrapped herself around him on the side Hanna wasn’t clinging to. “Bruce.”

Bruce took deep breaths. “I can’t endanger them. I just...can’t, Betty.”

She swept her hand up and down his back. “I know. Don’t worry about that until we’ve found Jarod or the other half-siblings, okay?”

Hanna patted Betty’s hand as Bruce buried his face in Betty’s hair.

“Yeah, okay.” Bruce stood there a little while. Then he hitched Hanna higher up his hip. “You are getting heavy, Hanna.”

She smiled as he moved her to his other hip. “I like the things Thor makes that Phil says are pancakes.”

Bruce smiled at her. “Yeah? Who taught Thor how to cook pancakes?”

Hanna patted Bruce on his wet cheek. “Tony gave us a box with the how-to on the back. Thor just followed what I said the box said.”

Bruce cupped the back of her head before setting her down. “Why were you pretending to be asleep?”

She looked up at him and then yawned. “You needed someone to hold.” Hanna shrugged. “I also was tired. Tony woke us up on accident.”

Bruce nodded. “He did yell pretty loud when he had that nightmare.” 

Francis peeked his head in the door. “Thor says come feast with us.”

Bruce chuckled and picked Hanna back up when she stuck out her arms. “You aren’t going to be able to use your legs if you never walk.”

Hanna kicked him with her heel as he followed Betty into the elevator. “I can walk fine. I just choose not to.”

****

Tony woke in that groggy way that told him he’d not only slept a lot, he’d done something stupid like crying beforehand. He pulled a pillow over his face and pressed down. 

The pillow was yanked away unceremoniously. “Stop sulking.”

He glared up at Clint. “Who says I’m sulking.”

Clint whacked him in the belly with the stolen pillow. “No one, but it made you feel something other than despair.”

“Fuck you too.” Tony closed his eyes and he dropped his head back down.

“You think you’re the only one freaking out right now? Really, Stark?”

“No.” He wasn’t stupid. He knew Bruce was probably about to come apart at the seams. And the news would be screaming by now. He scrubbed his hand across his face. “Oh, damn. I had a nightmare.”

“Yeah, you did.” Clint nudged Tony’s knee. “You woke up everyone. Then you went to bother Pepper and Thor carried you back in when she called him to come get you.”

Tony rubbed the sore spot on his stomach. “Uh. No wonder I’m sore. Fireman carry.” He squinted up at Clint. “Undignified?”

“Pretty much, but most everyone was back asleep by then.” Clint grinned at him. “The destruction is dominating the news cycle.”

“Well, wake up to over half of the countries’ fertility clinics up in flames and someone is bound to have a fit.” Tony pushed himself upright and looked over at Steve asleep with his stetchbook falling off his lap. “Is it evening?”

“Afternoon.” Clint gestured towards the kitchen. “Thor’s making dinner.”

Tony raised his eyebrows. “Seriously? It isn’t noodles again is it?”

“I didn’t ask.” Clint touched Tony’s shoulder. “You don’t need to be an ass just because we saw the end of one nightmare.” He stood up and pulled Tony onto his feet. “Just so you know.”

Tony grimaced and would have headed to his workshop except Clint didn’t let go of him once he was on his feet. “Let me go.”

“Food first. Assure yourself Bruce isn’t going to be green in the next couple of hours. Then you can bury yourself in your workshop and act like no one else exists.”

“I hate you.”

Clint smiled and pulled Tony along with him. “No, you don’t.”

****

Rhodey’s cell rang just as his boss knocked on his office door. Silencing the phone, Rhodey focused on his commanding officer’s unhappy face.

“What can I do for you, sir?”

“Come with me.”

Rhodey mentally groaned as he got up and followed. Behind him on the desk, his cell phone flashed that he’d missed a call from Pepper.

****


	16. Of friends and tasers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey gets a new assignment and the kids talk people into helping with their new pet project.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay in updating. I got tired of fighting AO3 and took a break.

****

Francis helped Hanna up onto the bed. “See? I don’t understand it either, but Phil says we’re supposed to consider the rooms Tony has given us our own.”

Hanna looked up at the star constellations on Francis’ ceiling. “There isn’t a lock on my door.” She looked at him. “I can get out anytime I want.”

Francis pointed at his door. “Mine too. No lock.” He gestured to the books on the shelves. “The books don’t all make sense.”

Nodding, Hanna slipped off the bed. “Natasha said that they were like Stitch.”

“Oh. Not factual. Okay.” Francis knelt down beside Hanna where she was petting the leg of the fur covered bear on the bottom shelf. “Steve says that’s a teddy bear. He seemed to think kids sleep with them.”

“It is soft. Maybe it is meant to be a pillow?”

“I don’t know.” Francis pulled out his bouncy ball. “How many bounces are you up to?”

“Six.” Hanna frowned. “You?”

“Five.” He bounced the ball and caught it. “I was thinking about how Tony and Steve make each other sad. They should be friends. Like Tony and Bruce are becoming.”

“We could help!” Hanna turned away from the teddy bear and clapped her hands. “We can convince them to like being friends.” She tilted her head. “Tony will be harder to coax.”

“Yeah.” Francis tucked his ball away.

Hanna thought about if for a minute. “I did well with influencing Bruce.” She tilted her head to the other side. “Betty helped too.”

“Oh. Maybe we can get the other adults to help.”

Hanna pushed herself up from the floor. “I’ll go ask Bruce.”

Francis followed her to the door. They grinned to each other as the door just opened right up when Francis turned the doorknob. “I’ll see if Phil will help.”

****

Clint rubbed his hands across his face as Coulson sat a cup of coffee down next to him. “Thanks.”

Phil gave a little nod and sat across from Clint. “Bruce told me Hanna seemed to be clinging to him in an attempt to keep him calmer.”

“Uh.” Clint took a swig of his coffee. “I guess that worked since Stark is still in his lab and not trying to talk to the Hulk.”

Francis clambered up into a chair beside them. “We need help.”

Phil moved his coffee out of Francis’ reach. “Who is we and help with what exactly?”

“Hanna and I think Tony and Steve should be friends.”

Clint and Phil exchanged looks. Clint turned his cup around in his hands. “You can’t make people be friends, Francis.”

Francis nodded and then frowned. “We aren’t making them.” He interlaced his fingers and showed his hands to the adults. “We’re going to make them see they can be friends.”

Phil took a sip of his coffee. “What are you needing help with?”

“We think Tony will be harder to convince.” Francis made a face as he unlaced his fingers. “Hanna said Betty helped her with Bruce, so I’m hoping you will help with Tony and Steve.”

Clint ran his fingers through Francis’ hair. “Sure. I’ll talk to Nat for you.”

Francis beamed at them. “Great!” He dropped down and zipped out of the room. 

Phil looked at Clint. “And if they refuse to get their acts together?”

Clint smiled as he shrugged. “Then Nat can lock them in a room like she was telling me she’s been considering.”

Phil snorted and got up to get himself another cup of coffee.

****

Hanna slammed into Bruce’s knee. 

“Hey there.” Bruce picked her up. “You okay?”

She nodded and snuggled closer. “I want to help Steve and Tony be friends.”

“Oh.” Bruce shifted her on his hip and started shutting down his workstation. “Maybe that’s not such a good idea. Tony and Steve are...very different people.”

She stuck out her lower lip. “They both need friends.” 

“Yes, they do.” Bruce took her with him as he headed for Betty’s lab. Tony had put her lab down the hall from Bruce’s. “It is just that some people don’t ever become friends. Tony and Steve may be that sort of people.”

Hanna shook her head. “No.” She waved at Betty through the glass wall. “They are just at the beginning of their _ohana_. Like Lilo and Stitch when Stitch wasn’t ready for a family yet.”

Bruce grinned at Betty as she raised an eyebrow at them. “And which is Tony in this scenario?”

“Stitch, of course. Tony is nearly indestructible in the suit.”

Betty covered her laugh as she paused her computer program. “What’s this about Tony being a bundle of destruction in a cute outfit?”

Hanna patted Bruce’s arm. “Tony is like Stitch and Steve is like Lilo. They need help to be friends. I want help to help them. Bruce is resisting.”

Betty looked over Hanna’s head to find Bruce trying not to make a face. “Well, we’ll just have to bribe Bruce to help.” She crouched a little so her head was even with Hanna’s. “How about we promise Bruce we’ll watch _Sesame Street_ with him, hmm?”

Hanna looked up at Bruce. “What’s _Sesame Street_?”

Bruce pushed his glasses up off his nose so he could rub his fingers across the bridge of his nose. “It is a show for small children. It is also useful for learning other languages when you don’t have a teacher.”

“Oh.” Hanna frowned. “If I watch it with you will you help?”

Bruce smiled at Hanna and then rolled his eyes at Betty over Hanna’s head. “Yes.”

Hanna smiled up at him and then hugged Bruce tight. “Thank you!”

****

“Please sit, Lt. Colonel Rhodes.”

Rhodey mentally grimaced at his full rank being used and sat down gingerly. “Sir.”

Rhodey’s commanding officer stood to one side of the room as the General sitting in his commander’s chair folded his hands together.

“Your commander seems to think you are the perfect man of the assignment I’ve been saddled with.”

Rhodey could see his commander stiffen ever so slightly out of the corner of his eye. “I’m sure I can handle it, sir.”

The General leaned back in the chair and threw his feet up on the corner of the desk. “Well, before that I think I’d like to see you handle something a bit smaller.” The man grinned as he put his hands behind his head. “Think of it has a vacation before your next assignment.”

Rhodey kept his expression neutral as a folder appeared from his commander. He took it and opened it up. After reading for a moment, Rhodey snapped the file closed and sighed. “Sir, I don’t...” He stopped as he thought about that low fly-by from the night before and quickly decided not to turn down a chance to get out of the area. “...think I can convince Dr. Foster to move into a building with Tony Stark.”

The General dropped his feet from the desk, put his elbows on the blotter, and leaned forward with his chin on his hands. “I think you might want to downplay that, yes.” He stood. “You might ask Stark about making you some sort of cloaking for your suit of armor while you are there.”

Rhodey could only stare at the General as he left, whistling as he went. Rhodey’s commanding officer clapped him on the arm. “It’s only temporary, Rhodes.”

Rhodey nodded, blinked, and then hightailed it out of there as soon as Colonel Davis dismissed him.

****

Darcy frowned as the door opened to a military somebody. “No.” She started to slam the door, but the guy shoved his body into the opening. “Hey! No breaking and entering.”

“I’m not breaking anything. I need to speak to Dr. Foster.”

Darcy kept her body braced against the door. The guy would run out of air eventually and she’d get a chance to go for her taser. “She’s not speaking to anybody. The last time she talked to a goverment toadie I had to move in the middle of the night.” She shoved hard on the door. “I lost my iPod again. I’d just gotten it back from Coulson.”

The guy blinked. “You know Coulson?”

“Darcy? Who are you trying to close in the door?”

Darcy shoved her hip into the door so she could turn her upper body towards Jane. “Some military corney. He wants to talk to you.”

Jane came closer and looked him over. “And why do I want to talk to you?”

The guy twisted and sort of fell through the door. “I’m supposed to take you to Stark tower in New York.” He spread his hands wide as Darcy pointed a taser at him. “Uhm. Agent Coulson is there too?”

Jane put her hand over top of Darcy’s taser and pointed towards the floor. “Is Thor there?”

“Uhm. Yeah, actually. He is.”

Darcy covered her ears as Jane went up on her tiptoes and squealed. Then, Jane turned and zipped out of the room. Darcy turned back to the guy and smiled.

“She’s a little nuts.”

He nodded and stuck his hand out. “Yeah, I can see that. I’m Rhodey.”

She shifted her taser to her other hand so she could shake. “Darcy. Is there time to get tacos on the way there? I’ll starve otherwise and it isn’t good for Jane to see me suffer like that.”

The guy just grinned. “I’m sure we can find you something to eat. Maybe an MRE.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Not cool at all.” Darcy ignored Rhodey as he smiled wider. "Tacos or else, mister."

****

Rhodey leaned against Tony’s workshop table. “I just got temporarily assigned to bodyguard Dr. Foster. You have anything to do with that?”

Tony looked like he was engrossed, but Rhodey could see him using the metal in front of him as a mirror. “Me? Never.” Tony soldered a connection before turning around. “You assume I can control the military now? That’s a nice thought, but no.” His eyebrows went up. “You might ask JARVIS. He’s been pretty quiet lately.”

Rhodey rubbed his hand across his face. “I’m serious, Tony. I had a General, who never did say who he was with exactly, assign me to this as a test for another possible assignment.” Rhodey waved with one hand to indicate all of the tower. “I’m in a building with a bunch of...superheroes, kids, and little chickens...”

“Chicks.” 

“What?”

“Chicks.” Tony patted Rhodey on the shoulder as he passed him to get to the desk. “When they are full grown, and only then, are they referred to as chickens.” Tony leaned over and winked at Francis under his desk. "Did you know that while they are young they get called pullets if they are female?

Rhodey sighed. “Why am I here, Tony?”

Natasha breezed in and pulled Francis from under the desk. “Rhodes, the question to ask yourself is how long are you going to last here if Darcy uses her taser on Banner.”

Rhodey’s eyes went wide and he quickly left the room.

Francis shook his head from where he was on Natasha’s hip. “That wasn’t very nice.”

She smiled at him. “I know.” She looked at Tony's work and then back at him. “Move it. Lunch.”

Tony gave her a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am.” He smiled to himself as the shadow in the vent above Barton's corner nest moved. He wasn't going to be the last one to lunch then.

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The no-name General is quite on purpose. This way if you know the show I'm not putting in the tags as crossing because, well, this is a pretty tiny cameo, then you can grin. If you don't know it doesn't matter. ;)
> 
> I don't watch _Sesame Street_ now. I will be using the characters I grew up on, plus Elmo (they added him pretty late for me, but I know people know him). Why, yes, Betty is going to make Bruce watch it with the kids and possibly Thor and Steve. :D Bruce totally shouldn't have told her what he did to learn languages (which is a conversation I figure they had while unpacking Betty's stuff).


	17. Explaining the Centre to Darcy and Jane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy talks. Tony makes a job offer. Thor nearly cracks Jane's ribs.

****

Darcy slid into a seat beside the guy with the short dark hair and watched Thor try to break Jane’s ribs with his hug. “Hi. I’m Darcy Lewis.”

The guy stuck his hand out towards her without ceasing to watch Thor and Jane. “Clint Barton.”

“So...what do you do around here?”

“I shot things mostly.” Clint titled his head. “Are they always like this?”

Darcy watched Thor sat Jane down on her feet, only to grab her back up into another hug. “They tone it down after about an hour. Jane’s ribs start protesting.”

“Hmmm.” Clint looked at her from the corner of his eye. “You seem a little out of place.”

Darcy shrugged. “If I lose Jane I’ll never get my college credits. Although, it isn’t like I’ve actually gotten to class in a while. Secret relocations for our safety have wreaked havoc on my schedule.” She leaned further back into the couch. “Since it has gotten me a room in Stark Tower and the chance to buddy up to the Avengers I’ll forgive Coulson for talking whoever into moving us. Again.” She tucked one foot up under her own thigh. “I’m not forgiving the lost ipod.”

Coulson sighed as he settled between them and handed Darcy an ipod. “Enough about the ipod, Miss Lewis.”

Darcy gasped and grabbed the ipod to inspect it. Then she stopped and narrowed her eyes at Coulson. “This is totally a bribe. What for?”

Coulson handed Darcy a tablet. “Watch this, please.”

Clint eased around so he could watch Darcy’s face and still keep Thor and Jane in his line of sight. Darcy popped in her headphones and watched the cued up video. She blinked several times and touched the screen to stop the video before ripping the headphones out of her ears.

“Fuck me.” She shoved the tablet back at Coulson. Then she leaned forward over her knees and hugged them to herself. “I didn’t really listen when Thor visited and told Jane about wanting to help these kids.” She turned her head to rest her cheek on her knee so she could look at them. “The fertility clinics were connected, weren’t they?”

“Yes.” Coulson brought up another file on the tablet. “There are two children here. The boy, Francis, is a clone of Clint. The girl, Hanna, is his daughter. She was created without his knowledge.” He turned the tablet so she could see it showing a picture of the kids watching the chicks.

“Oh, wow. They are so cute.” Darcy sat back up. “We’re talking, like, boy in a bubble, right? No idea about the outside world?”

Coulson nodded. “Essentially.”

Darcy looked past Coulson to Clint. “Cloned? Seriously?”

Clint made a face as he shrugged.

Darcy sat back and watched Jane tuck a strand of hair behind Thor’s ear. “Has anyone taken Francis and Hanna shopping?”

Tony Stark grabbed the ipod out of Darcy’s hand. “What the hell is this doing in my tower?” Tony turned the ipod over and over as Darcy chased after him. He kept going until they were in the next room. “JARVIS, close the door.”

Darcy spun and watched the door close before turning back just in time to catch her ipod as Tony tossed it at her. “What...?”

“The kids can’t handle being outside for more than fifteen minutes at a time right now, so no, no shopping.” Tony pointed at her with his chin. “You seem smart, given the scores I had JARVIS look up.”

Darcy blinked and then glared. “You hacked my file to get those scores, didn’t you?”

Tony shrugged. “Could have done it in my sleep. You need a better college.” He smiled. “Or better yet, you need a better career.”

“What are you proposing?”

Tony smiled. “See? Smart.” He flicked a wall panel on and pulled up the farm Steve had chosen. “What G-man out there didn’t mention was that there’s a bunch of kids with no families or homes that we can’t just chuck into the foster care system.” He tapped the old farm house. “Three more weeks and it’ll be ready for them. And they’ll need a teacher.”

“What? Me?” She poked the layout and it magnified the half-built school building. “Have you met me?”

Tony flicked the panel off. “I have about, what? Five minutes ago?” He sighed. “Look, they are going to need someone that can adjust to them. You handle weirdness alright. Don’t tase the kids though.” He grinned as she flipped him off. “You also won’t let them think of themselves as nothing more than the simulations they’ve run, will you?”

Darcy swallowed. “It is a lot worse than that little intro video Coulson just showed me isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Tony stared at her.

With a deep breathe, Darcy stepped closer. “I’m completely and totally not qualified.”

Tony smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder as he led them back towards the other room. “Yes, actually, you really are.”

****

Steve slowly smiled as he realized that the young lady that had come along with Dr. Foster was chatting so much the kids didn’t even seem to notice they were outside.

“And this is...Oh, wow.” The young lady was staring at him with her mouth hanging open.

Steve put down the panel he was about to attach to the coop. He stood up and wiped his hands off before offering one to her. “Miss Lewis, right? I’m Steve Rogers.”

She raised her eyebrows, blinked, took his hand, and snapped her mouth closed. “You are him, aren’t you? Really? You totally look like him.”

Steve took his hand back before she could decide to keep it. “Him?”

“Captain America? You know, the guy with the shield.”

Hanna wiggled until Darcy sat her down. “Steve’s shield will bounce.” She zipped over to where Steve had leaned his shield. Hanna stroked it and then ran over to clutch at Steve’s knee. “Steve needs friends.”

Darcy bit her lip and smiled down at Hanna. “Being displaced like he has? Oh, yeah, friends would be a good idea.” She checked her watch and then tilted her head at the coop. “Francis, how many chickens will the little house thing hold?”

Francis moved from where he’d pressed himself to Darcy’s side and started talking about the dimensions and ventilation of the coop. 

Steve stared as Hanna started to chatter right along with Francis as Darcy grinned wide at her watch. “Ma’am?”

She started and looked up. “Hanna said you came to the hospital to visit.”

Steve turned and started putting tools away. “I thought they could use a visitor.”

“You took them crayons?”

“And paper.” Steve shrugged as he went to pick up his shield. “They don’t know how to play with toys.”

Hanna put her arms up and Steve picked her up. “Is the teddy bear supposed to be used as a pillow?”

“Wow.” Darcy picked up Francis and headed for the roof access door. “Teddy bears are for dragging around with you everywhere. Telling secrets to, having tea parties with, using it as a weapon on your siblings...Lots of stuff can be done with a teddy bear.”

Steve followed her inside. “Why were you looking at your watch?”

Darcy ruffled Hanna’s hair. “They bet their old outdoor time by four minutes. Good job, kiddo.”

Francis frowned. “What’s ‘kiddo’ mean?”

Darcy sat him on his feet as they waited for the elevator. “Term of endearment. It means I like you and Hanna.”

Hanna tucked herself tighter to Steve. “Does it only get used on children? Or can Steve call Tony a kiddo?”

Steve could feel her wrapping a tiny hand on the edge of his shield, but he kept quiet as he watched Darcy’s eyebrows climb.

“What? No, no. Kids only.” She looked at Hanna. “Bruce said that you are going to get to see _Sesame Street_ tonight?”

Hanna leaned backwards before tilting so she hit Steve’s side. “Betty says we’re bribing Bruce, but he really wants Francis and me to see it.”

Steve looked down at the top of Hanna’s head. “Why are you bribing Bruce?”

She looked up at him and smiled. “He’s helping.”

When she didn’t say what Bruce was helping with, Steve looked at Darcy who smiled at him.

“Dr. Ross said not to say.” Darcy patted him on the shoulder. “It’ll be easier in the long run to give up on brooding and just go with it.”

Steve started to ask what exactly ‘it’ was, but didn’t get the chance as the elevator opened up to the common floor. Darcy hurried forward with Francis waving at him from her hip. Steve waved back, along with Hanna, as he followed.

****

Natasha sat on the corner perch with Clint as the credits of another episode rolled. “Why did they explain Mr. Hooper’s death? Most children’s programing ignores anything children actually want to know about.”

Clint looked over the sleeping people below them and waved at Hanna when she turned to point at the screen as the next episode started. “They thought the kids would understand it and that it was better than him just disappearing.”

“Hmm.” She leaned into him as he clenched and unclenched his hand. “You are okay.”

He took a breath. “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”

****

Jane looked at the panel that showed the remaining Council members and the known members of the Triumvirate. “So, this Council made this Triumvirate so they could better disavow the existence of the Centre if anything like you all happened?” She waved her hand towards the sleeping Avengers.

Coulson nodded as he flicked the next part of the relevant data onto the screen. “There isn’t much of it left.”

Jane nodded. “I saw the news.” She tapped a file and read it. “How many people do you think the Centre affected?”

“Tens of thousands.” Coulson pulled up the family trees they’d worked out so far. “Several of the children are related to each other.”

“Makes sense.” Jane sighed as she turned towards the group where the adults were ranged around the two children. “I just want to squish them both to me and never let anyone touch them again. Did you see her reaction to the Cookie Monster?”

Coulson handed her a handkerchief to twist in her hands. “Yes, I did.”

“It is no wonder Thor looked ragged when he visited.” Jane looked at Coulson. “Thank you for arranging that visit, by the way.”

He smiled. “You are welcome.”

****

Hanna crawled out of the middle of the people pile and went to the room with the growing chicks. She petted her favorite and then she climbed carefully onto the armchair closest to the wall panel. “Mr. JARVIS, can I watch the hospital kids again, please?”

“Of course, Miss Hanna.”

She smiled at him calling her an honorific as the panel lit up to show the group Hanna had been in. They were sleeping, but she could see that they’d used more of the crayons. Someone had brought them more paper. The toys were still on the table, but had been moved around some. “They are getting better?”

“Yes, they are progressing.”

Hanna slide off the chair. “Good. Thanks, Mr. JARVIS.”

“As always, you are welcome, Miss Hanna.”

She patted Bruce on the leg as she passed by him on her way back to her spot. Hanna gently moved Steve’s arm until he was brushing arms with Tony and then she slipped under their arms and went to sleep.

****


	18. Of hugs and Macy's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony gets lots of hugs. The kids go shopping.

****

Steve checked under Tony’s desk to make sure Francis wasn’t there to hear. “Tony.”

Tony threw down the tool he was using. “This about the plan to get us to be friends?”

“What?” Steve settled onto a stool across from Tony. “Well, sort of, but not...” He leaned down a little to catch Tony’s eyes. “They want us to get along.”

Tony sighed. “I can fake it...”

Steve rubbed his hand across the side of his face. “Tony.” He waited for Tony to look at him. “I know you don’t like me and that’s fine. Okay? We don’t have to try to be friends just because the kids want us to be. You and Bruce get along much better and I...”

“Wait, wait. Hang on. You think _I_ don’t like you? Seriously?”

Steve nodded at Tony confused expression. “Yes. I understand. I let SHIELD’s reports influence me too much and I said things that I should have thought through better...”

“Wow.” Tony blinked and leaned back a little. “You totally don’t get it, do you?”

“Uhm. No?”

Tony stood up and came around the corner of the table to Steve’s side. He waved a hand at Steve. “You are all... _you_. Good stuff rolled up in a pretty package.” He made a face. “I grew up being told how important it was I keep looking for you. Well, my company, but whatever.” He tapped the arc reactor. “You are like the anti-me, Steve. I don’t think the brief on me that they gave you was harsh enough.”

Steve blinked and caught up to Tony as he started to walk away. “Stop. You aren’t...”

Tony had that same look he’d gotten on the helicarrier. “Don’t lie.”

Steve huffed and yanked Tony forward into a hug. He ignored Tony’s feeble flailing. “Stop it, Tony. You are a good person. A very good person. Not just for your armor or your plans.” He carefully tightened his hold on Tony. “I like you fine, Tony.”

Steve held on for a few more minutes and then watched silently as Tony fled.

****

Bruce glanced up as Tony slid to a stop on the other side of his table. “Hey.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “You okay?”

Tony blinked and then pinched himself. “I think I’m having a waking dream or something.”

“Okay.” Bruce checked the time. Tony hadn’t been up too long. “Did you expose yourself to something dangerous?”

“Steve hugged me.”

Bruce’s eyebrows climbed. “Okay.” He started shutting down the computer program he had running. “Tony?”

Tony patted his chest where the arc reactor was and then continued the motion down himself to his sides. “I don’t know why.”

It was times like this that Bruce wished he had video feeds on Tony’s lab like Tony had on his. “Did you give him something?”

“No.” Tony frowned. “We were talking about the kids’ trying to make us friends. I said I understood why he didn’t like me and he just _grabbed_ me and told me I was good.” Tony drug a hand down his face. “Fuck. He called me a good person, Bruce. Who does that?”

Bruce took Tony by the elbow. “Why don’t we go tweak the farm’s plans, okay?”

“Yeah.” Tony smiled. “I’m in shock again, aren’t I?”

“Little bit, probably.” Bruce stirred Tony out the door. “You aren’t used to hugs, are you?”

Tony laughed. “I hug people.” He leaned into Bruce’s side. “No, no, I don’t. That’s a lie. I pretend. Pepper hugged me once. Right after I’d almost died, again.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m talking about.”

“Yeah.” Tony sighed. “I’m tired.”

“I know.” Bruce punched the button for the elevator.

****

Hanna crawled back along the duct to her father’s nest. “Can I come in?”

Clint pulled her up and in. “Hey, Hanna.”

She snuggled into his side. “Bruce implied there are different kinds of hugs. Kermit did too. Is there a chart I could have that explains?”

Clint rubbed his fingers through her hair. “I’ll draw you one.”

“Thank you.” She waited until he’d fallen asleep and climbed down. She went along the ducts until she got to the place she could use to get down. She dropped out of the ceiling and landed on the fluffy couch that Clint and Thor had moved just for her and Francis to land on.

Hanna hurried down the hallway and found Francis. “Tony told Bruce Steve hugged Tony.”

Francis grinned. “That’s progress.” He wrote it down in their project book he had started. “Darcy wants to take us shopping.”

“Pepper said shopping is going out and picking out things you want. Then you bring them home.”

With a frown, Francis hid their project book back behind the bookshelf. “Why should we do that when we can just ask JARVIS?”

Hanna shrugged. “I don’t know, but Darcy seemed to think it was important.”

Francis nodded. “We can try it, I guess.”

****

Francis peered over the countertop. “What are you making?”

Coulson pushed a step-stool over. “Wash your hands and you can help. I’m making cookies.”

“Oh.” Francis washed his hands and then waited while Coulson pushed the step-stool back over. “For the next time Cookie Monster is on the show?”

“That too.” Coulson put the bowl of dough between them. He handed Francis two spoons. “You pick up a spoonfull like this and then use the other spoon to push it off onto the pan.”

Francis watched carefully and then tried it. “It is sticky.”

“A little, yes.” Coulson got another pan and started filling it as Francis worked on his. “How do you like Miss Lewis?”

Francis looked up, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. He blinked a couple of times and went back to spooning dough. “She’s loud.”

“Has she scared you at all?”

“No.” Francis pushed dough off onto the pan. “She is very straightforward. She doesn’t hide.”

“Good.” Coulson switched pans. “Use the back of your spoon to flatten the ball out a little.”

Francis started smashing dough balls down. “Hanna is worried she’ll have to go to the farm home because Tony hasn’t said she can stay here like he’s told me.”

Coulson switched the pans again and let Francis flatten that pan too. “Hanna stays here, just like you. Both of you can visit the farm if you want. Even take classes there once it is all up and running, but you both live here.” Coulson gently turned Francis’ head. “You are Clint’s family. Our family, Francis.”

He smiled and put his hand on Coulson’s chest. Coulson covered it with his own hand.

****

Darcy stared up at Macy’s. “You bought out the whole place, seriously?”

Tony shrugged and herded everyone inside. “Just for the afternoon.”

Steve pulled the blanket off Hanna as soon as they were inside. She looked around with wide eyes. Steve sat her on her feet and held her hand. “The whole store, Tony?”

Tony turned, grinned at him, and flung his arms wide. “Quieter this way.”

Natasha pushed passed them carrying Francis. “Less tabloid photos.” She grabbed Hanna’s free hand. “Toys first. Let’s go.”

Steve let them drag him along. He knew by now to just ignore the price tags on everything. It all looked damn expensive because of inflation coupled with completely different manufacturing practices. 

Hanna squealed and dropped their hands when she saw a Sesame Street display. She ran up to it and clapped her hands, but didn’t reach out to touch anything. She turned back towards them and bounced a little. “Cookie Monster!”

Steve smiled and picked her up so she could reach the stuffed Cookie Monster on the next to top shelf. She stopped with her hands outstretched. Steve frowned behind her back at Natasha who shrugged and pointed at Francis staring at a SI robot kit without touching.

Darcy appeared at his shoulder, went up on her tiptoes, and snagged the Cookie Monster toy. “Good choice, Hanna.” She shoved it into Hanna’s arms. “You think we should get some for the farm school?”

Hanna reverently stroked the blue fur. “Maybe some teddy bears too?” She looked up at Steve.

Steve smiled and hugged Hanna close. “Teddy bears too.”

****

Pepper slipped in to stand beside Tony looking down on the group in the toy section. “You could join them.”

Tony patted the top of the railing in front of them. “And break up the little family moment? Nah.”

“The whole store, Tony?”

He shrugged. “Better than someone thinking I’ve had secret kids.”

“Hmm.” Pepper looked at him out of the corner of her eye. The wistful expression was firmly entrenched. She left him and went looking for Clint. 

Clint was arguing suits with Coulson. 

Pepper pointed at the better tie. “That one for Phil.”

Clint smiled. “See, she agrees with me.”

Phil sighed. “It is brown.”

Pepper looked at Clint’s frowning. “Phil, are you colorblind?”

“Oh. Slightly.” Phil took the suit to a nearby counter and put it under the light. “Ah. Okay. I agree it looks alright.”

Pepper smiled. “I need to steal Clint for a minute.”

Phil waved a hand at them. “Sure. I was about to look at bakewares.”

Pepper grabbed Clint by the arm and pulled him with her. “I need you to make sure Hanna and Francis pick something out for Tony. Doesn’t matter what. I could care less. Just something.”

“They have a list.”

Pepper stopped. “What?”

Clint smiled at her. “We made a list. Francis figured out people give and gets gifts and he told Hanna, but neither of them understand holidays or birthdays yet.” He shrugged. “So they asked me if they could get gifts. We made a list.”

“Oh.” Pepper smiled and hugged him. “That’s great.”

****

Bruce settled on the couch in his lab and sighed. “Still nothing on the half-siblings, JARVIS?”

“Not as yet, Doctor. They appear to be actively avoiding detection.”

He could understand that. The whole family had been hunted for so long. “Thanks again for looking.”

“I will continue searching.”

Bruce sighed as he nodded and he pulled the journals he’d gotten from the store out of the bag. He sat them on the counter and headed to the movie room. They were supposed to watch _Labyrinth_. He didn’t want to miss it.

****

Clint frowned at his chart. He picked up the tablet he had it on and went to find Natasha. “Hey, Nat. I need help with this.”

Natasha looked up from pulling up her new legwarmers the kids had given her with the spiders on them. “With what?”

He sat beside her and handed over the tablet. “Hanna needs a chart for hugs.”

Nat swore under her breath in Russian. “A chart?”

Clint nodded. “To help her learn which is what kind of hug. They aren’t all the same.”

“We’ll need Coulson’s help.” Nat covered her face with her hands for a moment and then handed him back the tablet. “What are you having trouble with?”

****

Betty smiled at the kids as they held out a fluffy Hulk toy. “Thanks.” She hugged it to her chest. “I love it.”

Hanna poked Francis in the side. “See? I told you she’d like it.”

Francis glanced up at her and Betty soothed back the boy’s hair.

“I do love it, Francis. And I understand why you’d worry I might not like it.” She sat the little Hulk right where Bruce couldn’t miss it. She was going to have to remember to ask JARVIS for a still of his face when he saw it. “What did you get everyone else? Pepper said you were getting gifts.”

Hanna beamed and started chattering about the various items they’d gotten.

****

Coulson stared at the box on his bed for a minute. “JARVIS, are you functional?”

“I am operating within specified parameters. Was there something you needed, Agent Coulson?”

The box was wrapped in paper and had Hanna’s handwriting of his name on the top. “No, thank you, JARVIS.” Phil picked up the box and carefully pulled the paper off. The inside was a picture of him and Francis baking, signed by Francis.

Phil opened the box and smiled. “Oh. Thank you for letting the children wrap them, JARVIS.”

“They were extremely careful, Agent Coulson. Might I suggest you check the bottommost cases?”

Phil carefully tipped out the trading cards in their protective cases until he hit the bottom two. They were numbered as though they continued the last series and they had obviously been hand drawn. “Where is Rogers right now?”

“He is in the movie room. The movie for tonight is _Labyrinth_.”

Phil carefully put the cards on his nightstand and went to start the popcorn.

The two hand drawn cards sat on top. The first with Captain America in the uniform Phil had helped design. The second with Coulson holding the shield of Captain America.

****

Tony stared down the card in his hand. “What is this?”

Hanna looked at him like he was an idiot. “It is a hug-me-now card.”

Francis tapped the laminated card. “You give it to someone and they give you a hug.”

Hanna smiled. “And then you get the card back and you give them a hug.” She pointed at the card. “It says so right on it.” 

Hanna yanked the card out of Tony’s hand. “See? You gave me the card. Now I give you a hug.” She latched onto him and Tony’s breath caught. Then she pushed back and dropped the card in his lap. “Now I gave it back. You have to hug me.” She stared at him expectantly. “Now.”

Tony blinked and gingerly hugged her.

With a huff, Hanna tightened her hold on him. “I won’t break.”

“No, you won’t.” Tony whispered in her ear and Hanna squealed as she leaned back.

“Really?”

“I said it didn’t I?”

Hanna hugged him for a moment more and then clambered down. She zipped over to Steve and climbed up into his lap. “Tony says I can stay here forever with you and everyone else.”

Steve smiled at her. “That’s great, Hanna.”

Francis sat a bag on Steve’s knee. “You next.”

Steve opened the bag and smiled. “Thank you both.” He pulled the picture of the Howling Commandos out of the bag.

“JARVIS looked it up for us.” Hanna pointed at the end of the group where Peggy and Colonel Phillips stood. “He helped us put them into the same picture with the rest.” She looked up at him. “Is it okay?”

Steve touched the frame gently. “It is wonderful, Hanna.”

Francis pulled Hanna down and Steve was glad the movie started up so he could concentrate on something else for a little while.

****

Pepper opened her email to find Francis had emailed her. She frowned and opened the file he attached and stared. “JARVIS, could you check the numbers in this stock file Francis sent me?”

“Of course, Miss Potts.” There was a few moments of silence. “I agree with Francis that those positions would be ideal. Would you like me to implement it upon the opening bell in the morning, ma’am?”

She stared at the expected yield. “Yes, please.” She closed down the tablet. “Thank you, JARVIS.”

****

Clint stared down at the kid’s present in his hand. The thin braid had a different color for each strand. Blond from Francis, light brown from Hanna, and red they must have talked Natasha into giving up. He touched the tiny capsule it was encased in. He’d seen the machine in the jewelry section, but he hadn’t given it any real thought.

He dropped silently down from his perch and settled just behind Hanna where she lay between Steve and Bruce on Tony’s legs. “Thank you, Hanna.”

She smiled sleepily up at him. “You like it?”

“Yes.” He brushed her hair back from her forehead. “I like you very much.”

****

Tony sat aside the hug card. “JARVIS, make sure I don’t lose this.”

“I shall endeavor to keep track of it, sir.”

“Good.” Tony checked his various feeds and smiled at Coulson turning the trading cards over carefully. “Did Steve get that second set signed?”

“Yes, sir. They are ready to be given to Agent Coulson at lunch as requested, sir.”

Tony nodded and tapped the search for Bruce’s family up to the forefront. “Still nothing?”

“They are hiding from the Centre, sir. It is possible they have learned to avoid all electronic tracking measures as a result.”

“Yeah.” Tony checked the vital signs for everyone he tracked next. That done, he pulled up the list of things he’d paid for at the store. Not bad for an afternoon. He checked off a few items for the school that Darcy had picked up at the store.

Then he checked the school. It was about finished enough to be livable. It just needed a name. Not his, since it needed to be semi-quiet. He played virtual basketball while he thought. “Safe Haven.” He liked the sound of that. He checked it for conflicts in the area and then started the paperwork to register it under Darcy’s name.

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've hit the breaking point. The rest requires Pretender characters and Stargate since I've decided in for a penny in for a pound. So if you are an Avengers-only type person you can keep reading and pay attention to the notes. I don't explain all at once, but you should be alright. I do have to back up in the timeline a bit to start the next one.
> 
> I never had any intention to make a series or let it get this big, but my brain just keeps adding on. Thank you all so much for your support. Just after this goes up the first chapter of the next one goes up as well. I do hope you'll keep reading. Thank you again for reading this far. :D


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